Prince of Destruction (REWRITE IS UP)
by HolyKnightsofTheRoundTable
Summary: Thrown into the world of High School DxD, can one man make a difference? The only way to do that however was to get stronger in the world of Devils. Luckily, he knew this world and for once in his life he was going to make a difference. (DISCONTINUED)
1. New Life, New World

Looking up at the purple sky from my balcony, it was still hard for me to believe that this universe was nothing more than a fictional one in my old world. It was still a lot for me to take in, being part of the universe where the supernatural existed, including devils, angels, and beings from various other mythological factions. After regaining my memories from my past life, it was still a lot for me to take in, as I was only seven when I remembered everything from my past life.

I thought I should have panicked, or been having an identity crises, but both sets of memories felt right. Felt like me.

I could not comprehend the how or the why of having apparently been granted a second life. Hell, I did not even know how my first life ended. At that moment, the only things I knew for certain was that I was somehow in the High School DxD universe, and there was going to be the Khaos Brigade, Evil Dragons, Rizevim, and 666 to deal with in the not-so-distant future.

Oh joy, wasn't that going to be a fun experience?

The existential fear crept on me then. Luckily, my knowledge of the future was up to date of the twenty-fifth volume of the series, and – frankly – the Great King faction didn't seem to be that active in the series, other than Sairaorg, but that was all about to change with me, the Next Great King of Bael. Though I was pretty certain that Zeroth Bael did not exist in the story I had known, as the only sons of the current Lord Bael were Sairaorg and Magdaran, as far as I could recall anyways.

Wait, did that mean that I had completely replaced Sairaorg in this universe? That was a shame, for Sairaorg was one of the awesome characters in the series. It looked like this universe was going to have to deal with me as the heir instead of Sairaorg.

At least I was born with the clan's Power of Destruction, so wouldn't have to worry about being shunned or exiled by the members of the clan. That was one problem out of the way as it would probably be quite difficult to make any changes to the universe if I was given Sairaorg's path. Though that wasn't going to stop me of course from going through the rigorous training that Sairaorg went through in the original timeline, hopefully becoming the bad ass that Sairaorg was at the start of the cannon timeline.

Unfortunately however, my power of destruction wasn't nearly as strong as the Gremory siblings, as my father loved to point out. Thus it was easy to understand why Magdaran despised Sirzechs and Rias, having been compared to them all his life, when one of them was the current Lucifer and the other was just as exceptional in talent like her brother. Not to mention that Sirzechs was one of the two Devils alongside Ajuka Beelzebub to be placed among the ranks of the Top 10 "Strongest Beings in the World".

How was a kid supposed to beat that? Seriously, Lord Bael put way to many high expectations on his kids. And now those high expectations were placed onto me as well.

Hopefully becoming the strongest young devil would please him, though that was highly unlikely, given his character. Not that it mattered anyways.

At least Misla, my mother in this world was nothing like Lord Bael and Magdaran's mother. She was at least kind and cared for the wellbeing of her son and this time she wouldn't have to go through the humiliation she went through in the original timeline for giving birth to a defect.

Just thinking about my new family made me miss my old life a little bit. At least in my past life I didn't have a lot of high expectations placed on me and didn't have to worry about seeking the approval of my father, not like Lord Bael deserved it anyways.

Then again, that was what the old Zeroth Bael used to do before my past memories came back. Not anymore, there was no point in seeking the approval of a man who showed no love towards any of his sons. There was no point dealing with the likes of him.

Now I actually had a chance to make a name for myself and become one of the most well known Devils in the Underworld. That and if I was lucky, I would also become the only pure Devil to possess a Longinus-tier Sacred Gear.

While I already was a High-Class Devil and the next Great King, my goal in this new world was to become a Super Devil and eventually one of the strongest Devils in the Underworld. With my power of destruction and Regulus Nemea, it was definitely possible.

If I hoped to make any changes in this world, my first step was to get stronger and become one of the most well known Devils in the Underworld.

Before I could plan my future any further, my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of my door creaking open and my mother walked in, surprised to see me up and about.

"Zeroth, you should be resting," my mother scolded, but smiled when she saw that I was well.

No doubt the rush of memories from a past long forgotten had caused me to pass out, which would explain the worried look on her face.

"I'm fine."

"Was it your training from yesterday that caused you to pass out? Your father was disappointed when you didn't show up for your lesson today."

Luckily it would seem that Zeroth Bael had the same mindset as Sairaorg and me. Only the strong survived in the Devil society and he no doubt thought that getting stronger would get his father's attention. Not like he deserved it anyways.

"Yeah."

A simple lie, but better than telling her that I was no longer her son and that someone else from a different world had replaced him.

"Don't worry about it. I know that one day you will become stronger than anyone else." My mother smiled.

She was a very beautiful woman, I noted, with long wavy gold hair, and bright green eyes. It was a shame that she was wasted on the likes of a man like my father, Lord Bael.

"I know."

She was the one good thing that Zeroth Bael had growing up in the Bael castle. At the moment, the only Bael family members who lived within the castle consisted of three people: my father as the current Head of the House, my mother, and me, the next Head of the House, thus she was the only person Zeroth was truly close to, with my father being a dick and all that. Besides that, the only thing that Zeroth had ever received from his father was a maid.

Not to mention that while other children would go to have fun at the beaches of the human world with their families, Zeroth had never gone on a trip outside of the Bael territory, aside from inspecting their family's lands.

Man their childhood sucked. It was no wonder that the sons of the current Lord Bael were completely different from the rest of their ancestors.

My mother seemed to read my mind and said, "He might not show it, but he does care about you."

Only because I had inherited the clan's Power of Destruction and was worthy of becoming the next Great King of Bael for they were the true leader of the Underworld, not the Four Great Satans. If I had been born like Sairaorg there was no doubt in my mind that my father would have cast me out along with my mother for being a failure in his eyes.

Like most of the old Devils, the Bael Clan preferred to stick to the old tradition where demonic power determined everything, going so far as to discriminate their own family members who didn't possess any demonic powers, as was the case with Sairaorg. It made me wish that I had been born as a Gremory instead.

"I will become nothing like him when I become the next Head," I told my mother.

My mother smiled at me. "You are already nothing like him." She leaned towards me and pressed her lips against my forehead. "Just take pride in the fact that you are a Bael, the next Great King. Don't deny your heritage."

"I will."

Pride as a Bael that was something easy to understand, though it would not be like the arrogantly fanatic extent as the descendants of the Old Satans.

"And try not to over exert yourself next time." My mother stood up and made her way to the door. "You won't be able to change anything if you exhaust yourself all the time."

With those last words she left, leaving me alone to finally focus on the situation at hand.

Making my way across the room, I spotted what I was looking for on a table beside my bed.

A full chess set, fifteen pieces in total. The tools needed to begin constructing my future peerage. As a High-Class Devil it was only natural that I would have my own set of Evil Pieces. They were necessary after all for the Devils to rebuild their numbers after the war.

In the original timeline, Sairaorg's peerage consisted mostly of Devils scorned by other Devils, but mine was going to be different.

Just to piss my father off, my peerage was going to have members of different races in it, with the sole exception being Regulus, the Lion King.

But my first goal was to get stronger; to be on the same level that Sairaorg was at the start of cannon.

Only then would I be able to make a difference in this world.

That and there was the Young Devil's Gathering, where Sairaorg would eventually lose his title as the strongest young Devil to Issei Hyoudou, the current Red Dragon Emperor. That was not going to happen to me for I was the next Great King of Bael and the future leader of the Devils. There was no way that I was going to lose to Rias Gremory and Issei Hyoudou.

Hopefully my future peerage would be able to do better than Sairaorg's did against Rias during their Rating Game.

Still, if I wanted to make any changes to this world I would need to get stronger, even stronger than Vali Lucifer was when he became the White Dragon Emperor of the Morning Star.

His aura alone in that form was able to rival that of a Super Devil.

Hopefully with my power of destruction and Regulus Nemea it would be possible to reach that state as well.

Just like Vali and Issei, I would try to gain a power stronger than that of Breakdown the Beast, one that could rival that of Diabolos Dragon and become a Super Devil like Sirzechs Lucifer.

Not to mention getting myself my own harem. Since this was the High School DxD universe, having a harem was basically a norm in this world. Except for the Four Great Satans whom were the only ones not to have one and the Angels since they would fall if they gave in to the temptation.

At least there was that to look forward to besides all the other important stuff to worry about.

More than anything though I needed to focus on surviving in this dangerous world.

As the next leader of the Devils I would need to have the same level of demonic power that Sirzechs had if I hoped to survive and thrive in the world of Devils.

Not even my father would be able to complain if he knew just how strong I planned to be.

Gazing once more at my set of Evil Pieces, I knew it was time to begin my plan to become the strongest and nothing was going to stand in my way.

* * *

 **That's all for chapter one of my second SI-fic, hope you all enjoyed reading and let me know what you guys thought about it.**

 **And if you didn't realize it by now, yes, Zeroth will have his own harem in this story.**

 **As for Zeroth's peerage, here is the complete list. Took me a while to decide who to put in it, and decided to have his peerage consist mostly of different races.**

 **King: Zeroth Bael**

 **Queen: Kuroka**

 **Bishop, Mutation Piece: Valerie Tepes**

 **Bishop: Rossweisse**

 **Knight: Raynare**

 **Knight: Bennia**

 **Rook: Lilitifa Vepar**

 **Rook: Katerea Leviathan**

 **Pawn x7: Regulus**

 **Pawn: Kiyome Abe**

 **As you can see, all of them are CANNON characters and none of them belongs to another franchise. And as you can tell, he will also have two Longinus in his group. There will also be no genderbent characters in this story.  
**

 **And yes, there will be no Sairaorg in this story. Zeroth has completely replaced his character.**

 **Like my other SI-fic, this is mainly just for fun and to help improve my writing with first person.**

 **Anyways, that's it for now. The next chapter will be up once I finish chapter three.**


	2. King of Lions

Magdaran had not lied about the lifestyle of a Bael.

Though I had wanted most of my focus to be on training, most of the time it was spent learning the responsibilities of the next Head of the House.

Politics had never interested me before, but now it seemed to be an important part of my daily life.

Not like they had done my father any good of course, considering that he would always rush over to the place where the previous and first generation had secluded themselves whenever a decision had to be made, and then ask for their advice. Regardless of whether it was a political or family affair, he had never made a single decision on his own. Hence, as long as he protected his pride and appearance, even his wife and children could be discarded without hesitation.

Luckily that would not happen to my mother or me this time around due to Zeroth inheriting the power of destruction and all that.

But my strict educational environment did hinder my plans a bit.

Which was why I was currently having an audience with my father, the current Head of the House.

It had taken a while to get his attention, but after several boring lessons with my tutors and memorizing the names of the remaining Devil Clans and extinct ones of the 72 Pillars, Lord Bael had finally summoned me to his study room.

Like most members of the Bael family, my father had purple eyes and black hair, though he did not have a very imposing figure. A man like him did not deserve to hold the title of Great King, but there was nothing I could do about it right now due to me still being a child and all.

Coming up with a plan to force my father to cede his position to me would have to wait for now.

After a while of silence my father finally spoke. He was like a shittier version of Tywin Lannister.

At least Tywin could actually think for himself and not rely on others to do the thinking for him.

"What do you want, Zeroth?"

For you to die and for me to become the next Great King.

"I want to be given more time to train, father."

My father raised an eyebrow at my response. "I have given you plenty of hours to train. You should be more focused on your studies than anything else."

"I'm doing just fine with my studies, but I wish to improve my power of destruction and become better than my Gremory cousins."

That seemed to get my father's attention. After all he would always compare me to the Gremory siblings and like the other members of the Bael Clan, he despised the Gremory Clan for their current generation had strongly inherited the power of destruction.

Not like it mattered to me of course, but at least it would hopefully convince my father to give me more time to train during the day.

"Your power of destruction could use some improvement, but your studies come first before anything else. I will not allow you to bring shame to this great family."

You're doing a fine job at that already.

"I have already finished memorizing the order of the high-class Devils. Surely you could give me more hours now to train?"

"Prove to me that you have them all memorized. If you do not get them all correct then I will take away some of your hours for training."

Here goes nothing.

"Bael, Agares, Vassago, Gamigin, Marbas, Valefor, Amon, Barbatos, Paimon, Buer, Gusion, Sitri, Beleth, Leraje, Eligos, Zepar, Botis, Bathin, Sallos, Purson, Marax, Ipos, Aim, Naberius, Glaysa-Labolas, Bune, Ronove, Berith, Astaroth, Forneus, Foras, Asmoday, Gaap, Furfur, Marchosias, Stolas, Phoenix, Halphas, Malphas, Raim, Focalor, Wepal, Sabnock, Shax, Vine, Bifrons, Uvall, Haagenti, Crocell, Furcas, Balam, Alocer, Caim, Murmur, Orobas, Gremory, Ose, Amy, Oriax, Vapula, Zagan, Valac, Andras, Flauros, Andrealphus, Cimeries, Amduscias, Belial, Decarabia, Seere, Dantalion and Andromalius."

"Then what houses among them have become extinct?"

"Marbas, Valefor, Buer, Gusion, Leraje, Eligos, Botis, Bathin, Marax, Ipos, Aim, Bune, Ronove, Foras, Gaap, Marchosias, Halphas, Malphas, Raim, Wepal, Sabnock, Vine, Bifrons, Haagenti, Crocell, Alocer, Caim, Murmur, Orobas, Ose, Amy, Zagan, Andras, Flauros, Andrealphus, Cimeries, Amduscias, Decarabia, Seere, and Andromalius."

"I suppose that will do for now. Very well, since you are so eager to train I will give you some extra hours during the week in place of your lessons. Don't make me regret it. Now leave. The next time we meet I expect to see some improvement with your power of destruction."

"Thank you."

Bowing my head, I took my leave; eager to begin the rigorous training that Sairaorg had gone through to push his body to the utmost limit.

Power of destruction, Touki, Regulus Nemea; they would soon all be in my grasp. And the title of the strongest young devil would be mine.

* * *

The next day after my studies were done, I headed underground to where the training area was located and went straight up to my personal trainer, who was waiting for me, and demanded to be trained in hand-to-hand combat.

My trainer seemed surprise, no doubt expecting to teach me how to improve my power of destruction as most Bael members rarely fought with their fists, but like Sairaorg, I was going to train my body to the max while improving my power of destruction on my own time.

"Don't hold back."

And my trainer obeyed.

Before I knew it, I was on my back, staring at the ceiling.

"Are you certain that you do not want me to go easy on you, Prince Zeroth?"

"No!" I yelled out and rolled to my feet, ignoring the throbbing in my leg where my trainer had struck me.

My trainer looked at me like I was a different person, but took his stance nonetheless.

I lasted three seconds this time.

I was never much of a fighter in my old life so this was all pretty new to me, though in my old world I was a normal human being and not a Devil with enhanced physical capabilities.

And so for the rest of my training session I learned just how pitiful of a fighter I truly was.

By the time it was over, my body was all sore and bruised, and my trainer had to help me back up onto my feet.

"Why are you exerting yourself this far, young master?"

"I just want to get stronger, that is all."

And that was the truth.

Most High-Class Devils did not bother to train and preferred to depend entirely on the demonic powers that they had inherited, but that was not me.

Battles between the supernatural were completely different than that of mortals. The only guaranteed way of surviving was to not take part. The second best chance was to be as close to godlike with my talent as possible. To get onto the level of the strongest beings like Sirzechs Lucifer, Ajuka Beelzebub, or Sairaorg Bael at the start of cannon.

The strongest all had to start from somewhere, unless you were born with immense demonic power like the current Maou, so I took to training like it was a damned religion.

I was in that training arena every morning and evening. When I wasn't studying, I practiced with my demonic power while sending out my familiar and servants to the human world with flyers, hoping that one of them would lead me to the Longinus Regulus Nemea. I didn't have much to go on how Sairaorg met Regulus, so I just hoped that luck would be on my side.

It was of course not at all surprising that Zeroth already had a familiar.

There really wasn't much else to do at that point due to all the restrictions placed on me as the future Head of the House. I wouldn't at all be surprised if I had missed my chance to obtain Regulus as one of my servants.

Within ten months, I was beginning to develop muscles and could almost hold my own against my trainer to a point where I would almost win.

Finally when I had almost given up hope at ever using my Evil Pieces, one of my flyers began to summon me.

Due to myself being stuck with boring lessons, I had to wait for an opportunity to answer it.

And as fate would have it, I would meet the creature that I was looking forward to encounter since I had regained my memories.

After managing to get away from my instructor, I immediately used my magic circle to teleport myself to where whoever was summoning me was.

Once I had arrived in the human world, I found myself facing a massacre.

There were bodies ripped apart and blood splattered everywhere across the field.

Standing amongst the pile of bodies was a gigantic lion, with a body about four to five meters tall. It had golden fur and a jewel on its forehead.

This was it.

But at that moment, I didn't know what to do when I found myself facing the great big lion.

Hopefully I had also inherited my mother's lion taming ability alongside the power of destruction. If not then I was so screwed.

The lion let out a mighty roar that shook the ground and I slowly began to walk towards it.

"Easy boy."

The nemean lion snapped its head in my direction and let out a low growl.

"It's alright. No one is going to hurt you."

Man, what was I saying? This was a crazy move, even for my standards.

Stretching out my hand, I took a few more steps closer to the lion, hoping that it would not bite my hand off.

If only I knew exactly how Sairaorg had managed to tame and make Regulus his servant it would make things so much easier.

The lion then began to take a few cautious steps towards me until we both were right in front of each other and the palm of my hand was rubbing the lion's forehead.

"How would you like to become a part of my peerage?"

Slowly reaching into my pocket, I pulled my Evil Pieces and showed them to the lion.

"You'll be safe with me."

My Evil Pieces then began to glow purple when it seemed like the lion was accepting them. Then at that moment, a bright purple glow engulfed them as seven of my pawn pieces went into the lion.

Just like with Sairaorg it would appear that it only required seven pieces to reincarnate a Longinus spirit into my peerage.

"Let's go home."

And with that I had finally obtained my first servant.

* * *

Well this was an unexpected visit.

Standing before me was the very first Head of the House, the first Great King, and the de facto leader of the Devils: Zekram Bael.

It should have been no surprise however, considering that my father had been livid when he had found out that I had gone to the human world and had come back with a Longinus spirit as my servant.

Said Longinus was currently curled up by my feet, asleep.

"What should we do about this?" My father asked, glancing at my new servant and me.

My ancestor had a calm aura about him and did not at all seem concerned about the lion in the room with them, unlike my father.

"Does anyone else know about this?" Zekram asked.

"No one."

"Then let us keep it that way. I don't want the Maou to know about this. Only those in the Great King faction can know. Is that understood?" His eyes were focused on me.

"I understand."

Zekram chuckled, looking at my father. "Who would have thought that your son would have gained a Longinus spirit as his servant? You should be proud of your son for accomplishing this feat. He is the first pure Devil to possess a Longinus."

And of course they were going to ignore me. I was still a kid after all.

"As you say."

"Perhaps this was fate that your son was able to claim the lion for his servant due to his mother's blood. I expect great things from you, Prince Zeroth."

"I will not disappoint you."

At least this time Zekram would acknowledge me as the next Great King of Bael because of my power of destruction unlike with Sairaorg.

"Good. You are free to leave now. Your father and I have some matters of state to discuss."

"Of course. Come, Regulus."

There was no point involving myself with politics just yet, considering that I had a long ways to go before I could reach Sairaorg's level of power.

Beckoning the lion to follow, I took my leave with Regulus trailing behind me.

"Time for you and me to begin training for our Balance Breaker."

* * *

 **And done with chapter two. Damn, still can't believe I got over 100 followers and 17 reviews for the first chapter. Thanks for all of your support and hope that you continue to enjoy the story.  
**

 **Since there wasn't much to go on with Sairaorg's meeting with Regulus, I had to improvise. Hopefully it wasn't too bad.  
**

 **As for the peerage, there might be some changes and there might not be.**

 **Anyways that's it for me. After this one, I promise that I will upload the next chapter after I finish with chapter four as I want to keep a few chapters ahead so that there will be some updates whenever I don't feel like writing.**


	3. Devil Gathering

Damn my body hurt like hell.

Ever since my first meeting with Zekram Bael and acquiring Regulus as my servant, I was slowly getting results with my trainer. Now that Regulus was with me, I would also occasionally train with him, who could of course shape shift into the form of a young boy. Luckily a Devil's body was far more physically robust and potent than a human body, allowing it to stand up to much greater physical strain than a human's. That of course didn't prevent me from feeling sore all over.

How Sairaorg managed to attain his power at the start of cannon was beyond me, but that didn't mean that I was going to give up.

At least when it came to comparing with my physical training, my demonic power was improving a lot, though it was nowhere close to Sirzechs's level. I at least had better control with my power of destruction than Rias did, being able to manipulate my demonic power into the form of flames.

Thus I had decided to name them the Flames of Destruction.

As for Regulus, well since I had been ordered by the leader of the Great King faction to keep the fact that I had a Longinus a secret I had decided to give him the name Reg for now.

It didn't need to be some complicated name so Reg would do for now. That was until Regulus would be revealed during my Rating Game with Rias, but that was years from now.

For now however I needed to keep my focus on getting stronger.

As for my body, well besides some muscles slowly developing, my durability was getting better, which was a relief. That meant more sparring time with my instructor and Regulus.

Compared to my instructor though, Regulus went all out whenever they trained, and the only good thing that came out of it was some improvement with my fighting technique.

[You are strange for a Devil, master.] Regulus noted, observing me while they relaxed in the courtyard of the Bael castle.

"How so?"

Besides the fact that I was once a human with no fighting experience before becoming a pure Devil.

[From what what I know about your kind, most Devils would rely on their demonic power rather than train their bodies to the limit, which you are doing right now.]

Well he certainly had a point there.

It was certainly a surprise for my family when they found out from my instructor that I was training my body as well as my demonic power.

Unlike most Devils, I planned to combine my physical prowess with that of my demonic power for even more destructive power. All Sairaorg had with his body was Touki and Regulus, but with my power of destruction added to the mix it would make me one formidable opponent.

I was more like Vali in a way, with his Longinus and demonic power, though he never took the time like Sairaorg did to train his body to the limit.

Maybe someone would dub me as the Strongest Lion King like Azazel did for Vali. That wouldn't be a bad nickname to have. So long as it wasn't any demeaning nicknames like the ones Vali, Issei, and Rias got then there was nothing to worry about it.

"Let's just say that I'm curious about how far I can go with my body."

[In other words you want to reach the limit of a Devil.]

"Exactly."

Just as Crom Cruach and Vasco Strada reached the pinnacle of their bodies, my goal was to reach that height as well. Not that of a Super Devil, but just the physical power of a Devil.

Though in my current state I still had a long ways to go before I would reach that go.

At least my demonic powers were coming along nicely.

Not like my father would care of course since he would still compare me to the Gremory siblings whenever they saw each other. Only my mother would acknowledge my improvement with my training.

Just thinking about my mother caused me to frown. It was still hard for me to believe that she was carrying my father's second child.

Then again it shouldn't have really been a surprise. In the original timeline, Lord Bael had a second wife when Sairaorg was born without the power of destruction, producing another son who was born with their clan's power. This time around there was no need for a second wife since Zeroth was born with the power of destruction.

The only question was who my sibling was going to be.

If it were Sairaorg who was born without the power of destruction, would my father still cast aside my mother even though she had given him a son born with the power of destruction? It wouldn't be at all that surprising considering how much pride my father had.

But then there was always the chance that Magdaran could be born.

If it were Magdaran then at least he would be able to have a more easy going life than he had in the original timeline, with most of his responsibilities as the next head resting on my shoulders. Not to mention that he would have a loving mother compared to Lord Bael's second wife.

He could focus on his hobby as a botanist to his hearts content even if their father would not approve of it.

There was also the chance however that my future sibling could be a girl. Hopefully that would not happen. I had my fill of having a sister in my previous life.

"By the way, your Sacred Gear can change form according to the wielder's thoughts, right?"

[That is correct. Why do you ask?]

"No offence, but axes just aren't my style."

[What are you thinking of then?]

"A sword."

Combined with my power of destruction, Touki, and strength, my swordsman skills could become more destructive than Xenovia's. Not to mention that I was also interested in obtaining Siegfried's Demon Swords for myself.

They were after all the ultimate weapons against Angels and Fallen Angels.

Sorry Kiba, but those Demon Swords were going to be mine.

[First you want to strengthen your body, now you want to use a sword. You really are a strange Devil, master.]

"You only get to live once."

Not for me anyways, but Regulus didn't know that.

There were lots of things that I didn't do in my previous life: fighting and wielding a sword were just one of the few things that I planned to cross off my list.

Compared to my demonic power training however, they were still lacking without much improvement, even if I could last longer against my instructor and Regulus a lot more then when I first started out.

[Then I suppose we should get started then.]

"Don't hold back."

All of my training would all be worth it in the end. After all, I had a body that could last for over 10,000 years and needed to be ready for anything.

* * *

If there was one thing I hated the most about my new life as a High-Class Devil besides my father, it was the meetings between the children of the other nobles.

Not to mention the damn suits were tight as hell. It was no wonder the kids didn't kill themselves from having to wear such clothes, but then again it might have been because fancy clothes never suited me in the first place.

That and many of the kids seemed to avoid me due to my status as the next Great King of Bael, which was fine by me because I had never been much of a social person anyways.

It was pretty obvious for me to tell however what these gatherings were truly for.

Marriage.

There used to be 72 Devils that held a peerage, with dozens of armies at their command, but after the war most of them had died, wiping out almost half of the 72 Pillars. Because of the low number of pure Devils compared to the reincarnated ones, the remaining pure Devils would arrange matches for their offspring to further their line.

It wouldn't be at all surprising if they were all somehow related to each other from a past marriage.

But because of the deaths of the original Maou it was difficult for pure Devils nowadays to produce more of their kind.

It was only a matter of time before my father decided to find a match suitable for me. Just like Rias and the other heirs of their clans there was no escaping an arranged marriage.

Though in my case it wouldn't be so bad as long as she was beautiful and had an interesting personality. She would of course have to deal with my own harem since I planned to have one.

Watching the other kids mingle in the great hall I took the chance to search for familiar faces from the light novels amongst the crowd.

It was pretty easy to spot my cousin, Rias Gremory, with her long crimson-red hair and blue eyes. She seemed to be chatting with two other girls around her age, whom I guessed were Sona Sitri and Seekvaira Agares, the next heads of their clans. All three of them wore elegant dresses befitting of their statuses.

To think that the three of them including me would soon become known as the Rookies Four was still hard to believe. If I didn't reach Sairaorg's level of power soon, the title of the Strongest Youth could fall onto one of them.

As the next future Head of the Bael Clan there was no way that I would let that happen.

"You are Zeroth Bael are you not?"

"That is correct."

To my surprise the one who had greeted me was the future queen of Sairaorg Bael, Kuisha Abaddon of the family part of the Extra Demons and the house that produced the 3rd Ranked Champion of the Rating Games though it was mostly because of the King Piece that he was able to reach that position.

Of course the only ones who knew that at this point were the old Devils and quite possibly Cleria Belial.

Since Rias was not in charge of Kuoh Town yet that meant that Cleria was still alive, but it was only a matter of time before she was killed.

I still wasn't certain if I wanted to change her fate because she already could be in a relationship with the exorcist Masaomi Yaegaki.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Kuisha Abaddon from the Extra Demons."

She was around my age, with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail like Akeno's. Not to mention that she was very beautiful for her age and would become a beauty like Rias and Akeno when she got older.

"What is a member of the Extra Demons doing here?"

If I remembered correctly from my studies the Extra Demons secluded themselves from the current Devil society, not wanting to involve themselves with the government and that those who involved themselves with the current society would have to break all ties with their households.

So what was Kuisha doing here at such a young age?

"I used my ties with Bedeze Abaddon to get in. To be honest, I was searching for a Devil worthy of my services."

So she wanted to join my peerage, huh.

To be honest I wasn't certain if I wanted to use the same peerage that Sairaorg had in the original timeline, which consisted mostly of scorned Devils. But Kuisha's power of hole could be quite useful and there was no guarantee that I would be able to find a more suitable candidate for my Queen.

Just like with Regulus it had to be fate that I would encounter another member of Sairaorg Bael's peerage so soon. That didn't mean of course that all of the members of my peerage were going to be exactly like Sairaorg's.

"Then how about you join my peerage?"

"But we just met."

"You won't find a Devil more worthy for your services than the next Great King of Bael."

After all the House of Bael had the purest blood of all Devils and they were the true rulers of the Underworld after the fall of the old Maou.

Kuisha frowned. "You seem to be so sure of yourself."

"Of course because I aim to be the strongest Great King."

"Then how many servants do you already have in your peerage?"

"Just one."

"What piece did you use for them?"

"Seven Pawns."

"I take it then that you already have an idea of what kind of peerage you want?"

"Of course."

It was like I was the one being interviewed for a job when it was Kuisha who was searching for a peerage to join. Seriously, this girl was way too serious for her age.

Then again Devils did seem to mature a lot faster than humans due to their upbringing.

The only reason I was mature for my age though was because I had the mind of an adult while I was stuck in the body of a child.

"Then why do you want me to be part of your peerage?"

Uh because you came to me looking for a High-Class Devil to serve.

"Because you are exactly the kind of person that I want to be a part of my peerage."

Fishing for a piece inside of my pocket, I pulled out my strongest piece.

"How would you like to become my Queen?"

* * *

Life in the Bael castle seemed to be a lot livelier now with the newest addition to my peerage and it was about to get a lot livelier with the newest addition to the family.

With Kuisha I now had another partner to train with besides my instructor and Regulus. While my physical training was with Regulus and my instructor, my demonic power training was with Kuisha.

To think that she would one day be able to take down Akeno with just one attack was still hard to believe.

With training though the members of my peerage would only get stronger perhaps even surpassing the level Sairaorg Bael's peerage was for their Rating Game against Rias.

If they kept this training up Rias and her peerage wouldn't stand a chance against mine when they faced off.

All that really mattered to me now besides my training was to decide the remaining members of my peerage.

At the moment the only members of my peerage were my Queen and Pawn: Kuisha and Regulus. That left seven positions opened for the remaining spots of my peerage.

If I remembered correctly the other members of Sairaorg's peerage were Devils from extinct families with maybe one or two of them being from the remaining Devil clans of the 72 Pillars.

Of course the only ones worth keeping from Sairaorg's peerage were already a part of mine. The others didn't really stand out that much to me.

Sairaorg's ideals were different from mine so it was only natural that my peerage would be different from his with a few exceptions.

Two members from Sairaorg's peerage were enough for me.

Xenovia and Ravel would make fine additions to my peerage though.

For Xenovia though that meant taking part in the Kokabiel fight, which was something I was not looking forward to, but her Durandal suited my syle.

"Zeroth."

As for Ravel well her tactical skills would also be great for my peerage.

"ZEROTH!"

Broken from my thoughts, I looked up to see my father glaring down at me with that annoying look of his.

"Where is your head at boy? Your mother is waiting for you."

That was right. The newest addition to the Bael family was born and to be honest it made me nervous.

Already my mind was running through the simulations of what would happen to my mother and her child if they were born like Sairaorg, but if it was Magdaran then she should be safe from the humiliation she endured with Sairaorg.

I didn't know what to do if my sibling was born like Sairaorg.

My father would cast my mother and sibling out, no doubt keeping me by his side as his heir and then he would probably take another wife to forget about the failures of his first wife.

Just thinking about it made me want to kill my father here and now.

That man did not deserve to be the Great King of Bael.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I walked inside the chambers with my father coming in behind me.

This was my first time walking in on someone who had just given birth and it was nerve racking for someone like me who had never experienced this in real life.

My mother seemed to be exhausted from the birth, but what caught my attention was the small bundle in her arms.

Come on please don't be Sairaorg.

My mother smiled when she saw me. "Zeroth, come and meet your new baby brother."

To my relief I could sense demonic energy radiating from his body, which meant that he had indeed inherited the clan's power of destruction.

"What is his name?"

To me it was pretty obvious what his name was going to be, but I just wanted to make sure to confirm it.

This time it was my father who answered my question, looking down at his new son with pride. No doubt he was pleased that his second child was also born with the power of destruction.

"Magdaran Bael."

* * *

 **Well there's one change to Zeroth's peerage that I made for his Queen.**

 **As for Zeroth obtaining Siegfried's Demon Swords it will most likely definitely happen.**

 **This means that Kiba will not be acquiring them in this story, and its not like he really needs them anyways since he has two Sacred Gears along with their Balance Breakers, so it probably won't be hindering him that much.**

 **Also here is Zeroth's updated peerage. This will be the only chapter it will be displayed on unless there are any changes made to it. For future references to his peerage they will be posted on my profile page along with his harem.**

 **Zeroth Bael's Peerage –**

 **King: Zeroth Bael**

 **Queen: Kuisha Abaddon**

 **Bishop, Mutation Piece: Kuroka**

 **Bishop: Ravel Phenex**

 **Knight: Jeanne**

 **Knight: Xenovia Quarta**

 **Rook: Katerea Leviathan**

 **Rook: Rossweisse**

 **Pawn x7: Regulus**

 **Pawn: Kiyome Abe**

 **Anyways that's it from me, let me know what you all think about it.**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER: A Stray Cat  
**


	4. A Stray Cat

Life as the next Great King of Bael seemed to consist of nothing but politics and training nowadays. It was almost impossible to leave the Bael Castle now because of my father's constant surveillance due to my little trip to the human world and the ever growing pressure to succeed my father as the next head. Not to mention the endless boring meetings with the nobles of the remaining Devil clans of the 72 Pillars until I was certain that I had met almost all of the current heads of their clans and their heirs.

Gaining favor with most, and at least the respect of the rest.

The ones that were the most interesting though were the current Maou, the symbols of the Underworld.

"You have gotten stronger since we last met," Sirzechs Lucifer noted. Just as Issei described him in the light novels, he was indeed the male version of Rias, with long crimson red hair and blue eyes. From just meeting him face to face it was easy to tell why he was considered the strongest Devil of the Underworld.

The man that I aimed to surpass one day.

"I have my instructors to thank for that," was my response.

The years of rigorous training had finally paid off and I had finally attained the level of power that Sairaorg Bael had at the start of cannon. Though it wasn't the same level of destruction as Sairaorg's yet, my body had changed significantly over the years, becoming more muscular, with broad shoulders, arms thick with muscle, and big across the chest.

"Why are you training so hard?" Sirzechs had asked.

"To become the strongest."

Even if it meant not making certain changes to the past, the results of my training were worth it.

Time pressed ever forward, and it was Cleria's death along with Rias leaving for the human world to take over Kuoh Town that caused the worry in the back of my mind to grow into a constant internal voice shouting "Cannon is coming".

The first thing I needed to do though was to complete my peerage, but it was impossible because of the restrictions placed on me. I absolutely did not want to have the same peerage that Sairaorg had in the original timeline. Those guys could join Magdaran's peerage for all I cared.

"Why would you want to go to the human world?" My father asked with an annoyed look the one time I broached the subject to him. "You are a Bael the future leader of the Underworld. Your place is here to learn how to rule. I have given you enough freedom as it is to indulge your interest in training. Leave the matters of the human world to the Devils beneath you."

It was not at all the kind of response I was hoping for, but it was to be expected from a man like my father who only cared about his own image and showed no love to any of his sons or wife.

However that hindered my plans to recruit some members in the human world into my peerage. It was only a matter of time now before the light novels began.

And at the current rate my peerage was going it probably wouldn't even be complete by the time of my Rating Game with Rias.

Like hell that was going to happen.

And that was how I ended up heading to the city of Lilith, the current capital of the Maou ruled by Sirzechs Lucifer.

"We shouldn't be here," Kuisha said as they waited for Sirzechs to summon them.

It was not the first time Kuisha had shown displeasure with my plan to go behind my father's back. It was a shame that Regulus couldn't come, but heeding the command of my ancestor, I had to leave him behind at home to keep anyone outside of the Great King faction from learning of his existence.

"Relax, my father will have his hands full running the house or dealing with Magdaran."

If there was one good thing that came from my presence so far was that Magdaran had a loving mother and an older brother he could look up to. Not to mention that while their father was displeased with Magdaran's hobby as a botanist, their mother praised him and showed him kindness that his mother in the original timeline never showed.

"And if he isn't you know your father will be furious with you," Kuisha pointed out.

"I'll deal with my father myself if that happens."

Before Kuisha could respond, a beautiful silver-haired woman wearing a maid uniform came up to them. She was stunning to look at and it was easy to guess that the woman was Grayfia Lucifuge, Sirzechs's wife and the Strongest Queen.

"Prince Zeroth, Sirzechs will see you now," Grayfia said, then glanced at Kuisha. "Your Queen is also welcome to join you."

"Thank you."

Following Grayfia to Sirzechs's office, I could only hope that he would hear me out and grant me permission to go to the human world.

As luck would have it the man they ran into before entering Sirzechs's office was none other than Zekram Bael himself, the true leader of the Underworld who also had more authority over the Great King faction than my father.

"Prince Zeroth, what are you doing here all by yourself?" Zekram asked, with a surprised tone in his voice.

It was almost as if Lady Luck was watching over me.

"I was hoping to get permission from Sirzechs Lucifer to visit the human world since my father refuses to let me to go."

"You came all the way here to disturb the Maou's time for a simple request like that?"

Now that got me confused.

"What do you mean?"

Zekram chuckled. "You could have come to me for permission instead of seeking out the Maou Lucifer." He then turned his attention to Grayfia. "Grayfia, please inform Sirzechs that the matter with Prince Zeroth has been dealt with."

"Of course," Grayfia bowed her head and took her leave.

"Now then why are you so interested in going to the human world?" Zekram asked, placing his hand on my shoulder and turning me away from Sirzechs's office.

Kuisha trailed behind them in silence, keeping her distance.

"To recruit more members to my peerage. I can't complete it if I'm stuck inside the castle all the time."

"I see. Well if that is the case then I don't see why you cannot go to the human world. Leave your father to me, I will deal with him."

Seriously!?

For the first Great King of Bael this guy was a lot easier to get along with than my father.

"Thank you."

At that moment those were the only words that slipped from my mouth.

"Don't worry about it. After all, you are the future of the House of Bael."

And with that the first Great King took his leave, leaving me alone with Kuisha.

"Looks like we'll be going to the human world after all."

* * *

And that was how they ended up in Japan.

Along with the sightseeing, they were also there on a tip from the Archduke of Agares of a wanted SS-Class Stray Devil lurking about the country.

The wanted Devil had to be Kuroka, the older sister of Koneko Toujou and hopefully a future member of my peerage.

Her Senjutsu, Youjutsu, and space-time manipulation skills could become very handy on my team. Not to mention that her magic power could rival that of an Ultimate-Class Devil. That and her beauty were wasted on the likes of Issei, with her breast size and all rivaling that of Rias and Akeno's. She would make a fine addition to my harem.

"Did you find her?"

At the moment it was just me, Kuisha, and Regulus searching for her. It was only matter of time before they found her, but Kuroka was making it difficult with her ability to conceal her presence from other Devils.

"Negative. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack," Kuisha replied.

"Sooner or later she will make her presence known."

After all using her younger sister as bait was the best way to draw her out into the open. Using the contacts of the Great King faction, it was easy to send a message out letting Kuroka know about the fate of her sister and where to meet.

All that mattered now was waiting to see if she would accept my offer.

Suddenly the space around me felt different as if I was transported to a different location, but my surroundings remained the same.

Looks like she wanted to have their conversation in private.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to show up."

"I had to make certain that this wasn't a trap-nyan. I'm certain that you are aware of my status as a criminal."

Appearing before me was a beautiful woman wearing a black kimono, with cat ears on her head. She was slightly older than me and her body was already developing into the voluptuous figure she had at the start of cannon.

"I know, but that doesn't matter to me."

Kuroka narrowed her eyes at me. "And why would that be? It's unusual for one of your kind to want to talk with me instead of killing me-nyan."

Might as well get straight to the point then.

"Because I'm not like those other fools."

Putting my hand into my pocket, I fished for one of my Evil Pieces and took it out for Kuroka to see.

Kuroka's eyes widened in surprise when she saw the Evil Piece. "That is!?"

"Kuroka, I want you to join my peerage. If you do your status as a criminal will be erased if you are part of the next Great King's peerage."

"What about my sister?"

"Your sister is currently in the care of my cousin, Rias Gremory, the next Head of the Gremory Clan. Join me and you will be able to see your sister again."

Kuroka smirked. "You are quite the bold Devil-nyan. I can also tell that you are quite strong for a Devil your age."

"Let's just say that I've had all my free time get put into training."

"However my previous master is dead. How would you be able to get me into your peerage even if I did accept?"

"I already have a solution to that."

Ajuka Beelzebub would be able to solve that problem easily, hopefully. He was after all the creator of the Evil Pieces system so could probably figure out some way to transfer her to my peerage.

"Very well. I can tell that joining you would prove to be quite an interesting experience-nyan."

"Then can you remove this barrier? My Queen and Pawn are probably worried sick about my wellbeing."

"What's the matter? You don't want to spend some alone time with this onee-san?"

"You and I can have as much alone time as you want once you are apart of my peerage."

Man she really was a very seductive woman.

"Then I will hold you up on that offer-nyan."

And just like that the barrier was lifted and they headed off to where Ajuka Beelzebub's hideout was in the human world.

* * *

"You really love to piss off your father don't you, Prince Zeroth?"

Standing before me on a rooftop was Ajuka Beelzebub, one of the Maou, and one of the Top Ten "Strongest Beings in the World". Behind me were Kuisha, Regulus, and Kuroka.

"I don't really care what that man thinks to be honest."

And that was the truth. He didn't show any love to me or Magdaran, so using my knowledge of the light novels I decided to fuck with him by recruiting Kuroka, a SS-Class Stray Devil to my peerage. No doubt he would have a headache dealing with the Naberius Clan when they find out that the Stray Devil that had killed one of their own was pardoned of her crimes.

Hopefully the first Great King would let my father suffer for a bit before intervening.

"I never would have thought that you would want to recruit a Stray Devil to your peerage," Ajuka said, glancing over at Kuroka. "You must have a lot of faith in her abilities if you wish to make her your servant."

"Yeah I do. So can it be done, Ajuka-sama?"

It was a risky gamble bringing Kuroka along to meet Ajuka Beelzebub, but he was the only guy who would have the tools to make her an official member of my peerage.

That and it would not be wise to bring in Zekram Bael in since he was busy soothing things over with my father. I wouldn't be surprised at all to be honest if my father decided to disown me and name Magdaran as his heir in my stead, but since I possessed the power of destruction and had the favor of the first Great King of Bael he would no doubt find that difficult to do.

"It can, but I will have to take her master's place to begin the ritual."

Remembering what had to be done for the trading to begin, I took out my Evil Piece that would be switched with Kuroka.

"I'm ready."

"Then let us begin."

Once the magic circle was drawn, Ajuka and I stood to the side of it while Kuroka stood in the center of the circle.

Hoping this would work, I clutched my unused Evil Piece before putting my hand forward and increased the aura around it while Ajuka did the same. The Devil symbols written on the magic circle then started to circulate while Kuroka's body began to shine responding to Ajuka's aura. Soon after my body began to shine as well along with the unused piece I was holding.

The flow of the aura changes gradually as it bypasses the magic-circle to where the Evil Piece I'm holding onto starts to synchronize with Ajuka's glow. All the while Kuroka synchronizes with my aura.

Once the ritual ended their auras stopped and the magic circle on the floor disappeared.

Ajuka then picked up the evil piece, which originally belonged to me.

"It's done. Kuroka is now a part of your peerage, Zeroth Bael."

"Thank you."

Finally the beautiful busty Kuroka was now part of my peerage. My peerage's strength had now increased with Kuroka's addition to it.

"Then I am no longer a Stray-nyan?" Kuroka wondered.

"Yeah, but you will have to stay low for a while until the matters over your current status are settled." Ajuka advised.

"Then it looks like that I am in your care for now on, Zeroth-nyan."

"Welcome to the family, Kuroka."

And with that the number of members in my peerage had increased. With my newfound freedom it was now possible to complete the rest of my peerage.

* * *

 **Yes, this was a time skip, surprise.**

 **So after listening to all of your opinions about Zeroth's peerage I have made some changes to it. This will be the last change to his peerage.**

 **Zeroth Bael's Peerage –**

 **King: Zeroth Bael**

 **Queen: Kuisha Abaddon**

 **Bishop: Asia Argento  
**

 **Bishop: Ravel Phenex  
**

 **Knight: Raynare**

 **Knight: Xenovia Quarta**

 **Rook: Kuroka**

 **Rook: Rossweisse**

 **Pawn x7: Regulus**

 **Pawn: Lilitifa Vepar  
**

 **Hey guys, so completely ignore the peerage above as it was late when I updated and the one I used was a rough version of the final one that I forgot to change before uploading.  
**

 **This is Zeroth's final peerage.**

 **Zeroth Bael's Peerage –**

 **King: Zeroth Bael**

 **Queen: Kuisha Abaddon**

 **Bishop: Kuroka**

 **Bishop: Asia Argento**

 **Knight: Raynare**

 **Knight: Xenovia Quarta**

 **Rook: Lilitifa Vepar**

 **Rook: Rossweisse**

 **Pawn x7: Regulus**

 **Pawn (Mutation Piece): Valerie Tepes**

 **Some of you guys might not agree with some of them, but you'll just have to deal with it.**

 **Anyways let me know how I'm doing with this first-person stuff as I'm still getting used to writing in this format since most of my stories so far have been in third person.**

 **And for those of you wanting longer chapters, hopefully they will be longer once we reach the cannon point, which will be next chapter, but no promises. That means another time skip and yes at that point Zeroth will have all of the skills that Sairaorg had plus the power of destruction and swordsmanship.  
**

 **Once again thanks for all of your support and see you all next time.**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER: The Holy Maiden**


	5. The Holy Maiden

Kuoh Academy, the place where the light novels began. And where peace would be formed between the Three Factions.

Much to my father's displeasure, instead of enrolling in one of the Underworld's prestigious schools, like Rias and Sona I decided to enroll at Kuoh Academy in the human world once they allowed boys to enter after it became a co-ed school.

Of course that meant leaving Magdaran alone with their father, but at least he had their mother to care and love him.

Living in the Underworld and being stuck in the Bael castle wasn't going to help me get stronger, but fighting foes like Kokabiel, Loki, the Hero Faction, and the Khaos Brigade would.

Still if there was one thing I hated the most about Kuoh Academy it was the annoying fan girls. They acted like they had never seen a handsome man before and after a while it just got annoying.

Instead of Kiba Yuuto being dubbed as the school's number one best looking guy, that position now fell onto me, the king of Kuoh Academy, much to my annoyance.

Who knew that being popular could be so annoying. Especially when the girls of the school acted like bitches in heat. No doubt they would jump at the chance to get into bed with me if they had the chance.

As for my interactions with the other Devils in the school, well let's just say that I preferred the Student Council to the Occult Research Club.

Seriously in every fic that I read for High School DxD most of them involved the members of the ORC. So instead of spending most of my time at school with Rias and her gang, I decided to spend my time with Sona and her group.

It wasn't like I had anything against Rias, but she was seriously an overused character that I didn't feel like going down the same path that most writers would take with their original characters and self-inserts.

Even though I had ended up as the latter in this world.

Though if there was one significant change that I had made with Rias's peerage it was that Koneko now used her real name Shirone after she had made amends with Kuroka.

Their moment had been almost exactly like it was in volume 24, only that I had no intention of having Shirone join my harem. She could be part of the dumb pervert Issei's harem for all I cared. Even if she would eventually have the same kind of body as Kuroka's, Kuroka was more my type than her sister was.

I wasn't interested in little girls at all. Issei could enjoy her as much as he wanted to.

As for the members that would join Rias's peerage after Issei, they would be part of my group instead of hers.

That way her group wouldn't be at full strength for their Rating Game and it would be an easy win for me to retain my position as the strongest youth.

Sometimes plotting against the main characters felt so good even when they didn't realize it was happening right under their noses.

Still waiting for cannon to start could be boring at times and while still training I spent my other free time playing chess with Sona.

In my previous life I had been a decent chess player, but compared to Sona my skills couldn't match with hers.

It was no wonder that Sona had been able to find herself a man yet.

"It's your move, Zeroth."

"Yeah, I know."

Sitting in front of me was a slender young woman with a black bob haircut. She wore a pair of purple-rimmed circular glasses and the standard girls school uniform. Her violet eyes studied me with a calculating gaze while waiting for my next move.

Studying the board, I realized once more that my chances of beating her were very slim.

"You really don't hold back do you?"

Sona smirked. "Just like you with your training."

She had a point there.

Yet it was thanks to my rigorous training that my physical prowess had improved greatly to the point that it was now on the same level as Sairaorg's. Along with my power of destruction, Touki, and swordsmanship skills, they made me a very formidable opponent in a one-on-one situation. Not to mention Regulus Nemea, but that would have to remain a secret for now until the time was right to reveal it.

"Looks like it's my loss then."

"Indeed it is. Checkmate."

Just as expected, Sona had won again, but I couldn't help but wonder if things would be different were it a Rating Game.

"By the way it would seem that Rias has found a potential candidate for her peerage." Sona said as they put the chessboard away.

"Interesting."

It was finally time for the light novels to begin. Hyoudou Issei, the possessor of the Boosted Gear, and the current Sekiryuutei. All that mattered now was making certain that Issei wouldn't be able to surpass me during their Rating Game.

True it would have been easier just to make him my servant, but almost all of my Pawn pieces had been used for Regulus and there wasn't any suitable piece left to use for him since his Longinus was most likely worth seven Pawn pieces.

"How about you? Any suitable candidates for the Strongest Youth?"

"Not really."

Just waiting for them to arrive in town is all.

"Compared to me and Rias your peerage is smaller than ours."

"You don't need to worry about me or my peerage. Our numbers will be increasing very soon."

Sona narrowed her eyes, studying my grinning face. "So you've already found candidates of your own."

"That is right."

During my years of intense training I had plenty of time to decide on the future members of my peerage. With Kuisha, Regulus, Kuroka, and Jeanne already part of my peerage that left my Bishop, two Knights, two Rooks, and the single Mutation Pawn left.

As for my meeting with Jeanne, well let's just say that it was all thanks to one Diodora Astaroth. No doubt he was trying to recruit her to his peerage because of his nun fetish, but unfortunately for him I had gotten to her first.

And thanks to that she wouldn't be part of the Hero Faction of the Khaos Brigade this time around.

For the rest of my peerage though Asia Argento would be the second Bishop of my peerage, with her Twilight Healing being quite useful in the future. As for Valerie with her Longinus Sephiroth Graal, I would need to wait for an opportunity to present itself to recruit her into my peerage.

Though the Bishop piece would have suited Valerie, the Mutated Pawn piece would have to do. Hopefully it was powerful enough to reincarnate her because of her Longinus.

Ravel could have also been part of my peerage, but Asia would be more useful to the group than her tactical skills.

As for the second knight, Xenovia and her Durandal suited my peerage perfectly with her reliance on power.

For the rooks Lilitifa and Rossweisse would do, though Rossweisse would have been better suited for the Bishop, but my Bishop pieces would already be taken by the time she showed up.

Though if given the chance instead of Xenovia as the Knight, Irina would take her place while Xenovia would be a Rook instead of Lilitifa. That way the Church Trio could become part of my harem instead of Issei's. It couldn't hurt after all to have Xenovia as a physical Rook because it suited her power style.

Now all I had to was wait for them to appear and make them mine before Rias could.

Sona smiled. "Then I look forward to meeting them."

"You'll be the first person to meet them."

"You say that, but I still haven't seen this mysterious Pawn of yours. They took seven of your Pawns so that means they must be strong."

Of course she would bring up Regulus, but it was not yet time yet to reveal him. If she knew about my Longinus then there was no doubt in my mind that she would start to make countermeasures against Regulus for any future Rating Game matches she might have against me.

It was a wise decision to keep Regulus a secret from her to have an advantage.

"You'll meet them in due time."

That was always the response that was given whenever Sona would ask about my Pawn.

Sona frowned when she realized that she wouldn't be getting the answer out of me. She had also tried using Rias to figure out who my Pawn was, but she would also get the same result as Sona.

No matter how hard they tried they weren't going to get me to reveal my Pawn that easily.

"One of these days I'll find out who your Pawn is," Sona vowed.

"Good luck."

"Zeroth-sama/Kaichou."

They were soon interrupted by the arrival of their Queens, Kuisha and Tsubaki.

Just like Rias and I, Kuisha had chosen to use her real name when they had enrolled at Kuoh Academy. She had also grown into quite the beauty, with her hair growing longer though she still kept it tied in a ponytail and her breasts rivaled that of Akeno's.

Tsubaki was also quite the beauty, with extremely long black hair that fell past her knees, split bangs, and heterochromic eyes, with the left one being violet and the right one being light brown.

"What is it?" We both asked.

"It's time for your meeting with the student council."

"You are scheduled for training in ten minutes, Zeroth-sama."

It was time for that already, huh. Well no rest for the weary and Kuisha made certain that I didn't miss any of my training sessions.

"I'll see you again soon then, Sona."

"Likewise."

Making my way out the door, I smiled at Tsubaki.

"I look forward to our next sparring session, Tsubaki-san."

"Y-Yeah." Tsubaki blushed and looked away from me.

She was my occasional sparring partner alongside Jeanne, whom thanks to my intense training helped her unlock her sub-species Balance Breaker, Stake Victim Dragon.

It was no surprise for Tsubaki though to fall for me after I had proven to be a far superior swordsman than she was, which was good for me as she was certainly my type.

Sorry Kiba, but Tsubaki wasn't going to fall for you this time. Not like he would have noticed anyways.

And with that I took my leave, ready for another training session.

* * *

"That's it for today."

The training arena was completely demolished from my rampage. Looks like Kuroka and Kuisha were going to have some fun repairing the arena.

"Even with my Balance Breaker I'm still no match for you."

Jeanne sighed while the massive dragon behind her consisting entirely of holy swords disappeared.

"That's because he's been training his body to the limit."

Kuroka said, making her way across the arena.

The way she moved with her hips and her breasts bouncing with her movement was very seductive.

"Your swordsmanship isn't that bad though."

Jeanne smiled at my encouraging words.

"Just you wait Zero-sama, I'll become the strongest swordswoman there is."

That was the nickname she had decided to give me, much to my displeasure. It reminded me of the show called Code Geass, and that it was strange to have my nickname being a number and all that.

"I look forward to that day."

Compared to their first encounter they were getting along swimmingly, though it was understandable because they were from opposing sides, with Jeanne being the Battle Maiden of the Vatican and me being the next Great King of Bael.

No doubt when the first Great King heard of our partnership he was reminded of Cleria Belial and her Exorcist lover. Of course since she became my servant he didn't have to worry about taking any drastic actions to maintain the peace between the Three Factions.

Still Jeanne was lucky to be part of my peerage instead of Diodora's or the Hero Faction. If she was part of Diodora's peerage she would have been raped and broken and if she was part of the Hero Faction she would have become a terrorist and probably brainwashed as well since that was how the Hero Faction did things to recruit more members.

And now since she was part of my peerage she could truly shine with her Sacred Gear, Blade Blacksmith.

It would be a while before Kiba got his Blade Blacksmith, but for now Jeanne was the only user of the Sacred Gear and it would be quite handy for future Rating Games since they would be going up against other Devils.

Though for a guy like Diodora he probably wouldn't have cared as he just enjoyed raping and breaking women of the Church.

But there was definitely a lot of potential for Jeanne to become even stronger than she was in the original timeline.

"Now that you two have had your fun, I think it's time that I've had some alone time with our King-nya."

Kuroka walked over to me and pressed her breasts against my chest, slithering her hands up my arms, and smiling at me.

"Not today."

Kuroka pouted. "Then how am I supposed to be able to carry your child if we don't do the deed?"

Because the blood of the Great King flowed through my veins, Kuroka became interested in having my child after seeing how strong I was. Not to mention it was highly likely that my future children would all inherit my power of destruction if they went by High School DxD EX standards.

But that would be thirty years from now a problem for a later time.

"You'll have to settle with a kiss for now."

As much as I would have enjoyed having some sex with Kuroka, I had decided that I would have sex with all of my servants once my peerage was complete. That would be the best first sex experience ever.

Though if they kept this up I probably would have sex with one of them before my peerage was completed.

But for now that would have to wait.

Now that Rias had identified Hyoudou Issei as a potential member of her peerage it was only a matter of time now before the cannon events began.

That meant that once Issei was reincarnated into Rias's peerage, Asia would be appearing shortly after that.

Instead of Issei running into Asia it needed to be me so that she wouldn't hesitate to join my peerage. That meant no distractions for now.

Kuroka then sighed. "Fine, but sooner or later you will impregnate me."

She then pulled my face over and slammed her lips against mine, pushing her tongue in and coiling it around mine. While that was happening, I could feel her breasts press deeper against my chest while my arms wrapped around her body and squeezed her ass.

"You're as bold as always, Kuroka-san."

Kuroka stopped kissing and smirked when Kuisha approached them, with her arms folded underneath her breasts.

"You can always join in as well, you know. I don't mind sharing-nya."

The thought of having both Kuroka and Kuisha in bed with me was very arousing, but I needed to stay focused on the matter at hand.

Kuisha blushed at Kuroka's proposition before shaking her head and clearing her throat.

"A-Anyways, just as you have predicted Zeroth-sama, a Fallen Angel has made contact with Hyoudou Issei."

Which meant that Raynare has already asked Issei out on a date.

Jeanne frowned. "Don't tell me you plan on having that pervert join your peerage?"

"Of course not. Rias can have him."

After all, my peerage was only going to consist of women, with Regulus being the sole exception of course. Just like with Riser they were all going to be a part of my harem.

Though that would mean Issei having a chance at stealing my title as the Strongest Youth, all I needed to do was keep training and getting stronger.

The plus side though was that unlike Sairaorg, I knew all about Issei's abilities and new forms and could make countermeasures against them.

My Balance Breaker and Breakdown the Beast mode would be more than enough to handle Issei's Illegal Move Triana and Cardinal Crimson form.

"So do you want us to continue to monitor the Fallen Angel's movements?" Kuisha asked.

"Yeah, keep an eye on them for now. Let Rias worry about Hyoudou."

* * *

"Why is someone like him…"

"Why is someone vulgar like him next to Rias-onee-sama…"

It has begun.

Watching Rias and Hyoudou walk onto the campus grounds together was a strange sight to see, considering that I had already seen and read about this moment from the show and the light novels.

Though the reactions from the boys and the girls were amusing to say the least.

Yet from the aura that was coming from Hyoudou it was easy to tell that he was now a Devil, a Pawn of Rias Gremory's peerage, and the current Sekiryuutei.

It still was hard to believe that guy would reach the rank of High-Class Devil within a year of his reincarnation while someone like Sairaorg was never promoted to Ultimate-Class in the same timeframe despite all of his achievements and being the Strongest King of his generation.

Hopefully that would not be the same case with me.

"So that is Rias's new servant," Sona noted beside me.

"So it would seem."

It was clear from Sona's expression that she was curious as to the reason why Rias would reincarnate someone like Hyoudou as her servant. If only they knew that the Sacred Gear Hyoudou possessed was a Longinus, but considering that it wasn't until after the battle with Raynare that Rias realized that it was the Boosted Gear meant that they could only sense he had a Sacred Gear inside him not what type it was.

They would no doubt find it strange that I was able to tell that the Sacred Gear Hyoudou had was a Longinus if I told them.

Once Rias and Hyoudou reached the entrance they went their separate ways, with Hyoudou walking in the other direction and Rias approaching them.

"Congratulations on your new servant, Rias."

Rias smiled. "Thank you, Zeroth."

"That guy possesses a Sacred Gear, doesn't he?"

Might as well pretend to act intrigued by Rias's new servant.

Rias nodded her head while Sona asked, "What piece did you use for him?"

"All eight of my Pawns."

"For a weak person like him that must mean that he possesses a powerful Sacred Gear."

Just like how Regulus required seven Pawn pieces to reincarnate him that meant that Ddraig required seven as well or in the case with Issei, seven point five while only half a Pawn was needed for Hyoudou.

Yeah, I'd much rather have the spirit of a Sacred Gear as my servant than a pervert like Hyoudou.

If only Rias knew what she was getting herself into with making someone like the Sekiryuutei as her servant.

"For now, but he's interesting to say the least."

"You should start training him right away, Rias. Would be a waste of your pieces if you didn't help him get stronger."

Sure that would probably help Hyoudou in the long run and was going against my wishes, but I needed to keep him busy in order for me to encounter Asia instead of him.

"I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

Just as planned, Rias kept Hyoudou busy with training, giving me the opportunity to run into Asia without any interference.

If only Rias knew that I was manipulating her to get the chance to acquire a servant she would have in the original timeline.

Was it because of my greed as a Devil that I wanted Asia and her Sacred Gear, probably, but who cares? All that mattered now was running into Asia and hopefully befriending her.

Sure that was probably how Diodora recruited his servants, but their reasons for it were completely different.

As to how I knew where I would encounter Asia, well it was easy to figure out Hyoudou's usual route since his Devil senses weren't as sharp and so he was unable to detect my presence.

Making my way down the route that Hyoudou would take on his way home, a sudden cry and the sound of someone falling caught my attention.

Finally.

Turning around just like in the light novels there was a Sister on the ground, with her arms spread wide open and her face on the ground.

Man she had a nice rump, not to mention her pure white panties.

"Here let me help you."

Approaching Asia, I offered my hand to her so that she could stand up.

"Auu. Why do I keep on tripping over… Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you very much~."

Lifting her up the wind then blew causing her veil to fly off, revealing her blonde hair, which fell down onto her shoulders. Her straight blonde hair sparkled from the light of the sunshine.

So this was the blonde haired beauty Hyoudou fell in love with, I thought, gazing into her bright green eyes.

The second Bishop of my peerage was finally here.

"Are you lost?"

Picking up her veil I handed it back to her.

"Uh yes, I was appointed to the Church in this town and have been in trouble since I got here. Um, I can't speak Japanese that well and other people couldn't understand what I was saying."

She held her hands together in front of her chest with a sad look on her face.

One of the best things about being a Devil was their Language ability. In my past life the only language I spoke was English, with a little bit of Spanish from high school, and that was about it.

Though after a while it did get a bit boring knowing what everyone was saying and all that.

"Well luckily for you I know where the Church is."

Remembering the important locations of Kuoh Town was another thing I did on the side besides training. Even if the Church happened to be a place where a Devil couldn't enter.

"Y-You do! T-Thank you~! This is all thanks to God!"

She smiles at me with tears flowing from her eyes.

And just like that I ended up with Hyoudou's part in cannon, taking Asia to the Church.

On our way to the Church, we went past a park.

They then heard a boy cry out in pain and his mother rushed over to check on him.

Just as expected, Asia made her way over to the boy in the park and helped heal his injury with her Sacred Gear, Twilight Healing.

After that they continued on their way to the Church.

Despite knowing about the weakness of a Devil it still felt strange to feel my body tremble at the sight of the Church.

Though it wasn't anywhere close to the reaction Hyoudou had, it still felt weird.

It had been a while since I had been afraid of something, even if it was a natural reaction for a Devil.

"Yes, this is the place! I'm so glad."

Asia sighed in relief after comparing their location with the map in her hands.

Seeing the lights coming from inside the Church it was easy to tell that there were people inside, which meant Fallen Angels and Stray Exorcists.

It was finally time to begin my plan.

Still, it was a waste to let a beauty like her go, along with her Sacred Gear to the Fallen Angels, but it would only be for a short while.

Once she realized what Raynare truly was, she would come over to my side.

"Then this is where I shall leave you."

"Please wait!"

Despite my desire to leave, I stopped and looked at Asia.

"I would like to make you some tea as a gratitude for taking me here—"

"Sorry, but I've got other matters to take care of."

"But that's…"

She had a troubled look on her face and probably wanted to show her gratitude to me, but that couldn't happen.

"My name is Zeroth Bael. What's your name?"

Sure it probably wasn't a good idea to give her my full name, but she deserved to know it. After all she would soon be a member of my peerage.

"My name is Asia Argento! Please call me Asia!" She responded with a smile on her face.

"Then Asia, I hope we meet again soon."

"Yes! Zeroth-san, I will definitely come and see you!"

Asia bows her head and with that I took my leave.

Once I was completely out of her sight, I opened up my communication line with my Queen.

"Kuisha, gather the others on my location. I've found my next servant."

* * *

 **So yeah, some changes were made to Zeroth's peerage. I suppose I lied for the chapter about that being the final peerage. It just takes a while to get the right peerage down, but I think I got it this time.**

 **I know before that I mentioned Raynare would be Zeroth's Knight, but in the end I settled with Jeanne.**

 **As for Zeroth's and Jeanne's meeting it would have been too short of a chapter to put down and I didn't feel like writing any fillers as I wanted to jump right into the cannon timeline, but there will be more interactions between them in the future to give more backstory about how they met.**

 **Plus I'm still getting used to writing in first person and it will probably be awhile before my chapters become longer, though they probably won't reach the 10k threshold.**

 **Anyways hopefully this will be the final peerage for Zeroth, but no promises.**

 **Zeroth Bael's Peerage –**

 **King: Zeroth Bael**

 **Queen: Kuisha Abaddon**

 **Bishop: Kuroka**

 **Bishop: Asia Argento**

 **Knight: Jeanne**

 **Knight: Irina Shidou**

 **Rook: Xenovia Quarta**

 **Rook: Rossweisse**

 **Pawn x7: Regulus**

 **Pawn (Mutation Piece): Valerie Tepes**

 **Well that's it for me. See you all next time.**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER: Black-Haired Ruin Prince  
**


	6. Black-Haired Ruin Prince

"You want us to do what?"

"Even by your standards this is crazy, Zero-sama."

"She must be quite the beauty for you to want to attack the Church-nya."

After gathering the members of my peerage near the abandoned Church, it was not at all surprising to hear what their reactions were to my plan.

"Relax these guys are rogues it will just be a minor skirmish is all."

While it was understandable because they were worried about this fight starting the war between the Three Factions again they didn't have to worry about that. After all, Raynare and her group were just a bunch of rogue low-class Fallen Angels hoping to impress their leaders, even though Azazel and the other leaders weren't interested in another war, besides Kokabiel of course.

That aside, there was the problem on how to begin the plan to get Asia Argento to join my peerage.

If they followed the canon route then I would just have to wait for Raynare to kill Asia before intervening and killing her then reviving Asia as my servant. That meant wasting a few days, but it would be worth it to have her Twilight Healing on my peerage. Her healing powers would be a lot more useful than having someone like Ravel on my peerage instead.

Of course that was something Diodora would do so the other option was to wait for Asia to see what the Fallen Angels really were and then offer her a choice to join my peerage.

That meant following a little bit of canon, but unlike Hyoudou I would be able to handle Raynare easily. She was cannon fodder when compared to me.

Compared to my years of struggling to attain the strength I had today, Raynare didn't stand a chance against me nor did her other minions.

"How can you be so certain about that?" Kuisha asked, folding her arms.

Jeanne nodded her head in agreement. "That is right! For all we know there could be a Cadre-level Fallen Angel amongst their group."

"There isn't." Kuroka interrupted, gazing at the Church.

Leave it to Kuroka to clear things up with her Senjutsu. Using the flow of ki, she would easily be able to tell if there was a high-level Fallen Angel in the Church. Her skills made her a valuable asset of the peerage indeed. She was much more useful than Ravel and her tactical skills.

Still, the only problem now was how to recruit Asia to my peerage.

Even if she did join willingly they would still come into conflict with Raynare's group, considering that Raynare desired Asia's Sacred Gear.

Meh, that was a problem for another time.

Only thing that needed to be focused on was obtaining Asia as my servant.

Damn it all if it fucked up the timeline. This was my story now not Hyoudou's or Rias's.

"Now that that matter is settled, I want Kuisha and Jeanne to remain on standby by the Church. Kuroka will accompany me when we come into contact with the enemy."

"As you command, my King," Kuisha frowned and looked at Kuroka. "What are their numbers inside?"

"Around fifty of them plus four Fallen Angels. All of them are low-class. They shouldn't be a problem for you two-nya."

"If it is the wish of Zero-sama then I will carry out your order and slay all of your enemies." Jeanne smiled and unsheathed her rapier from her hip.

"If at all possible I would want to avoid conflict with them, but when it comes to a Sacred Gear that will be unlikely."

Kuroka smirked. "Not to mention that this is a rare one-nya."

And it was soon going to be mine.

Having Regulus here though would have made things easier, but he was a last resort card, considering that I had my power of destruction and Touki to rely on. Compared to Sairaorg with just his body and Touki, I was a much more formidable opponent than he was this time around. However using my full power on these low-class Fallen Angels would not be necessary.

Raynare was after all the weakest antagonist in the series compared to the other ones Hyoudou would face later on.

That and it would be unwise to unleash the power of the Nemean Lion in the human world even with barriers set up around them.

"Should we let Rias-sama and Sona-sama know about what we are going to do? Rias-sama is after all in charge of this town."

"That won't be necessary."

This conflict would be over before Rias and Sona even got involved with the matter. Kuisha didn't need to worry about them. True Asia might encounter Hyoudou when he fought Freed, but other than that there was nothing to worry about Rias and Sona's groups getting involved with them.

Their clans were lower than mine anyways so their opinions didn't matter to me.

Plus Rias and Sona would be more cautious when it came to matters that involved the other groups of the Three Factions.

So long as Hyoudou didn't get close to Asia from his first encounter with her against Freed then everything would go as planned.

"So are we going to attack the Church now, Zero-sama?"

"No, we'll wait for tomorrow to attack. Kuisha form a barrier around the Church before you and Jeanne engage the enemy. I will signal you when it is time to attack."

"As you command."

"What about the girl-nya?"

"Leave her to me."

This time around Asia would not die before joining my peerage. She would not need to go through that suffering she went through when Hyoudou tried to save her. She would come to me of her own free will without ever knowing the pain of dying.

Raynare would not know what hit her when she would try to retrieve Asia tomorrow.

Kuisha sighed when she saw how resolved I was to make Asia into my servant. "Then we should prepare ourselves for tomorrow. The enemy has more numbers than us and we need to be ready."

"Let's go."

Wait for me Asia, you will soon be mine.

* * *

"Are you sure about this, Zeroth-sama? Is this girl worth all of this trouble?"

"She has potential to be something great. Not to mention that it's about time we got a new comrade."

"There are other numerous candidates you could have chosen from to be part of your peerage instead of having to deal with these Fallen Angels."

"Do you trust me?"

My question caught Kuisha off guard, causing her to grow silent for a moment.

At the moment they were relaxing in one of the underground arenas after they had finished with their demonic power training for today.

It was understandable for Kuisha to question my decision to make a Sister like Asia into my servant. She was after all my manager and cared for my wellbeing, supporting my dream of becoming the Strongest Devil to the fullest. With Kuisha by my side there really was no point to have Ravel part of my peerage since they both would have had the same roles and dealing with Ravel would have meant getting involved with the Riser arc, which I had no intention of involving myself with.

As for my peerage, Kuisha no doubt hoped that I would choose some Devils from High-Class families, but that was not my way.

Sairaorg took in anyone from different backgrounds if they had potential, but just as they were two different people; my peerage would be different from his.

Sure that meant stealing some members from Rias's peerage, but if it meant weakening her group than it was fine. Not to mention my father would disapprove of my peerage choices.

Any chance to piss off my father though was a win for me, even if he was the current Great King of Bael.

That and no one on my peerage besides me realized how much potential Asia had with her Sacred Gear along with her high affinity with Dragons, which would come in handy in the near future.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, Kuisha replied to my question.

"I trust you with my life, Zeroth-sama. You are different from other Devils, but sometimes you act without thinking about the consequences afterwards. Just like that time when you wanted to go to the human world without your father's permission."

Of course she would bring up that.

Even to this day, Kuisha hadn't forgiven me for nearly getting the both of them into trouble with the Great King and Maou faction. All because of my desire to go to the human world, where real changes could be made for the Underworld instead of being stuck inside the Bael castle for the rest of my life.

"I understand how you feel, but my decision on this matter is final."

If only she knew how much more fame they would be able to acquire being at Kuoh Academy maybe then she wouldn't question my reasons for coming to the human world.

Being the Strongest Youth of my generation was one thing, but acquiring fame like Hyoudou Issei was an entirely different matter.

Sairaorg was only interested in becoming a Maou and creating an Underworld where any Devils regardless of their background can make their dreams come true, which was probably why he was never able raise his status beyond that of a High-Class Devil. Mine though was for completely selfish reasons as I just wanted to become the strongest being there was.

In my past life I was just a normal person of the society, but here I could become something more. With my power and as the next Great King of Bael it was definitely possible to fulfill my ambitions of becoming the strongest. And Hyoudou and Rias would be my stepping stones for that dream, they just didn't know it yet.

Kuisha sighed, snapping me from my thoughts. "I figured you would say something like that."

"You know me too well by now."

Kuisha smiled. "Indeed. By the way, how goes your search for a Magician? Compared to Rias and Sona, you are the only one who has not made a contract with one yet."

"All in due time."

The perks of knowing the future is that I would eventually come into contact with Le Fay Pendragon, a highly skilled Magician, and according to Ravel, highly qualified for the position.

Besides, why make a contract with a Magician whom I barely knew? At least with Le Fay I knew that she was capable of becoming my Magician.

Sorry Hyoudou, but you'll have to find a different Magician this time around.

That and who cared about the breast loving idiot, this was my story now, not his. So screw canon at this point, I was going to make a wave of changes that would no doubt affect the entire storyline, but whatever.

This was going to be the beginning of the Prince of Destruction, the next Great King of Bael, and the Lion King, not the Oppai Dragon, Sekiryuutei, and the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess.

Whatever being had thrown me into this world had better get ready for the changes that I planned to make to this universe.

* * *

Waiting for Asia to show up at the park felt like it was the calm before the storm.

Kuroka was waiting nearby on standby, ready to inform Kuisha and Jeanne to begin the assault on the Church. Barriers would be thrown up of course to prevent nearby bystanders from noticing that there was a battle going on near them between Devils and Fallen Angels. It was only a matter of time now before the battle between Raynare's group and my peerage began.

Once Raynare showed up, Kuroka would throw up a barrier around them to prevent her from escaping. Luckily for them, Kuroka could hide her presence from other beings so they wouldn't have to worry about Raynare sensing her in the area.

For now though it was all a matter of patience and waiting.

As to how they managed to skip school for today, well it was all thanks to Sona when she learned about my plan to recruit a new member to my peerage.

Still, there was the matter on how Azazel would react when he found four of his underlings unconscious at his doorstep.

Unlike Rias, I planned to spare them and let Azazel give them his punishment. It would probably be a lot worse than death to be honest.

It would also hopefully get me into the good graces of the Governor General for sparing his subordinates instead of killing them, even if they did go behind their leader's back.

My thoughts were soon interrupted by the sight of golden hair.

Asia also seemed to notice me and was shocked to see me.

"Asia."

"Zeroth-san?"

It was time to begin the operation.

Soon after our meeting, both Asia and I sat at a table in a local restaurant with food in front of us. Just like Hyoudou, I had to order for her because she couldn't speak Japanese and couldn't even understand the menu. It was not at all surprising to see most of the male customers to stare at Asia because she was a nun and quite the beauty.

Sitting opposite of each other it was amusing to watch Asia stare at the hamburger, unsure of how to eat it.

"Asia, you eat it by taking off the wrapper like this." I showed her.

"T-There's actually a way to eat like that!? A-Amazing!"

"You also eat the fries like this."

"Oh my!" Asia was looking at me eat the fries with very keen eyes.

"Now you eat."

"Y-Yes." She takes a small bite of the burger and then started to devour it. "D-Delicious! This burger is very delicious!" She exclaims while her eyes are shining.

She really was cute. It was a shame that someone like her fell in love with a pervert like Hyoudou. She deserved someone better than a weakling like him, even if he did get stronger as the series progressed, but that was all thanks to his plot armor.

"Have you ever had a burger before?"

"No. I have seen it often on television, but it's my first time eating it. I'm moved! It's delicious!"

"So what do you normally eat?"

"Mainly bread and soup. I also eat vegetable and pasta food."

Man if I had to eat bland food like that everyday I would become a Stray within a week of being at the Church. I needed delicious food like steak, fried chicken, ramen, macaroni, and all the fast food out there.

Asia didn't know what kind of delicious food she was missing out on. That was probably why I would never be a religious person in any lifetime.

"Then be sure to savor the taste."

"Yes. I will be sure to enjoy it." She took another bite of her food and was clearly into it.

Now all that mattered now was on how to convince Asia to join my peerage. There was no need to ask her why she was at the park, since I knew that she was running away from the Fallen Angels, even though she mumbled about having some time off. Not to mention that even though they had only met once before unlike Hyoudou who had seen her again with Freed, she seemed relieved to see me.

Then there was the matter of whether I should reveal to Asia that I was a Devil. Sooner or later she would find out and it was better that she heard it from me.

It was impossible to lie to a kind-hearted girl like Asia.

Hurry up and show yourself, Raynare. That way I could beat your ass and get Asia to join my peerage.

Realizing that she wasn't going to be showing up anytime soon, I sighed, realizing they would have to follow the canon storyline for a bit.

Asia gave me a worried look when I quickly stood up from my seat. "Zeroth-san?"

"Come with me."

Asia seemed uncertain, but smiled now that she was finished eating. "Yes!" She grabbed my hand and we took off.

* * *

"Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Yes!"

Following the original storyline was a bit boring, but it was worth it to see Asia have some fun at the game center. Especially when she lit up after I had won her the doll of "Rache-kun" from the crane game. Now all they had to do now was to wait for Raynare to show up and then Kuisha and Jeanne would invade the Church.

Deciding to kill some time, I decided to reveal to Asia about my own Sacred Gear, though I technically wasn't considered to be the official wielder of it.

"By the way, I also have a Sacred Gear like you."

Asia had a shocked look after hearing my confession. "Zeroth-san, you also have a Sacred Gear? I didn't realize it at all."

"That's because it's not on me right now."

She tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

It was now or never, Zeroth.

"The spirit of the Sacred Gear is my servant. I am a Devil, the next Great King of Bael." To show her proof, I revealed to her my bat-like Devil wings before putting them away.

Just like with Hyoudou, Asia was shocked to find out that I was a Devil. "Zeroth-san is a Devil?"

"I'm sorry for lying to you about it before, but I didn't know when to tell you the truth."

Asia shook her head. "No, it's understandable why you would want to keep that a secret from me. After all, you were kind to me and helped me when I was in need."

Only because I had taken Hyoudou's place. In some alternate reality, Asia would have met Hyoudou instead, but because of my interference, she met me.

She truly was a kind-hearted person that it almost made me feel bad about preventing her from meeting Hyoudou, almost. The Church, the Fallen Angels, Rias, and Hyoudou didn't deserve her.

"I'm here whenever you need me, Asia. If you need anything from me then I'll grant it."

"Is that a pact with a Devil?"

"Not at all. From here on out, you are now under my protection. You are running away from someone, right? Stay by my side and you won't have to worry about them ever again."

Asia didn't know what to say, but tears of joy began to pour from her eyes. "Will you become my friend?"

"Yeah, if that's what you desire than I shall grant it."

Asia then nodded her head and smiled.

"An Devil and a Sister don't make me laugh."

Finally. About damn time you showed up.

Standing before them was a slender girl with silky black hair and violet eyes.

"Begin," I whispered through my communication line with Kuisha, Jeanne, and Kuroka.

Just as planned, Kuroka threw up a barrier around them though Raynare didn't seem to notice as she was too focused on me and Asia.

Raynare narrowed her eyes at me, no doubt wondering who I was. "You are different from the other Devils I've run into. Whose clan do you belong to?"

"Raynare-sama," Asia whispered.

"I don't care what you are up to, but I suggest that you leave now, crow."

Raynare glared at me with a disgusted look. "Whoever you are, I don't want a Devil like you talking to me. That girl, Asia, is our personal belonging. Can I have her back? Asia, you know it's useless to run away?"

Like that was ever going to happen.

"No. I don't want to return to that Church. I don't want to return to the people who kill other people. Also, you people did things to me." Asia replied back with disgust.

"Please don't say that, Asia. Your Sacred Gear is essential for our plan. So please come back with me. I also took the time to look for you. Stop being such a troublesome bitch!" Raynare took a step forward, but Asia hid behind me, her body trembling in fear.

"It's about time I showed you the difference of strength between you and I." Taking a step forward to protect Asia, black flames engulfed my fists.

This bitch was in for a real treat now.

"Don't look down on me, filthy Devil!" Raynare gathered light in her hand but I was too fast for her.

Raynare's eyes widened in fear when I appeared right in front of her and slammed my fist into her stomach, sending her crashing into the fountain.

"Zeroth-san," Asia gasped, surprised at my strength.

That wasn't even the full extent of my power. For a low-class Fallen Angel like Raynare she wasn't even worth my full strength.

The rubble from the fountain began to move and Raynare broke out of it, with a scared look on her face. "Impossible! That wave of demonic power just now was that of a High-Class Devil."

If only she knew just how far out-classed she was against me.

"My name is Zeroth Bael, the next Great King of Bael."

Raynare's eyes widened even further than before. "Black flames. Don't tell me that you are from the House of Bael, the Strongest Youth."

"You picked the wrong opponent to mess with."

Once more I lunged forward and threw my fist at Raynare, but stopped it right in front of her face. The surrounding air trembled from the aftershocks of stopping it, and the rubble around them shook greatly. In front of Raynare who was frightened by my fist attack, I spoke.

"Don't ever go near Asia again. If you do the next time I won't be so merciful."

Raynare then sneered, though her body was quivering in fear. "You think you've got me, but too bad. This plan was kept secret from the higher-ups, but there are other Fallen Angels with me. If I get in danger, they will-"

"You mean these Fallen Angels?"

A magic circle appeared beside them and Kuisha, Jeanne, and Kuroka stepped out of it with the unconscious bodies of Dohnaseek, Kalawarner, and Mittelt.

"Sorry it took so long, Zeroth-sama, but one of the priests we were fighting escaped."

Freed, it had to be that guy to slip away when the tide of the battle turned.

"As you can see you guys have lost. Kuroka has already notified your superiors and they will be here shortly to pick you up. Consider yourself lucky that I am not in the mood to kill all of you."

And with that I slammed my hand against the back of Raynare's neck, knocking her out instantly.

Calming myself, I then turned around and smiled at Asia who was stunned by what had happened. "Now, let's go home, Asia."

"Y-Yes!"

* * *

"Looks like we owe that Bael kid one, Azazel."

"So it would seem. The Black-Haired Ruin Prince of the Bael Clan. He must be quite the interesting Devil to spare a lowly bunch of our kind like Raynare's group."

"What should her punishment be?"

"She hates Devils so much then how about we have her become one. What do you think, Shemhazai? It might be amusing to have her be part of the group of the brat she killed."

* * *

And just like that, the conflict between Raynare's group and my peerage ended in our victory with Asia joining my peerage in the process as my second Bishop. To celebrate they had gathered in the Student Council room so that I could show off my new cute servant to Sona.

"I will be in your care for now on," Asia bowed her head in front of Sona and her group.

Thanks to the special ability of Devils, Asia could now understand what everyone was saying though she would still need practice with writing in Japanese and other languages.

Sona sighed and looked over at me. "I suppose congratulations are in order for you, though I never would have expected you to recruit a Sister into your peerage."

"She had nowhere else to go after her fallout with the Fallen Angels, and so she gladly accepted my offer to join my peerage."

Not to mention that she was quite smitten with me after the conflict. She probably never expected me to be as strong as I was when I defeated Raynare, though it was mostly because I was keeping my demonic power hidden, just to scare the shit out of Raynare when I finally revealed who I was.

"You had it easy. While you were fighting only one of them we were dealing with a whole lot of them," Jeanne pouted.

"You guys handled yourselves just fine."

Between the three of them the other members of Raynare's group didn't stand a chance against them. Actually, they never really had any shot at beating them ever.

"By the way, it would seem that Rias has also acquired a new servant," Sona informed them.

What, since when did that happen? As far as I could recall the only members Rias recruited during the first volume were Hyoudou and Asia.

"What piece did they take?"

"A Knight."

Now this was just getting confusing. The only other Knight Rias ever had besides Kiba was Xenovia. So who else from the series could have joined Rias's peerage? Certainly not Irina since she wouldn't show up until later in the series alongside Xenovia to hunt down the stolen Excalibur swords.

Then who else could it be?

Wait, it couldn't be Raynare, could it? That would just be ridiculous, even for a guy like Azazel.

Sona smiled at my confused look. "She is someone you and Asia are already acquainted with."

Now that definitely answered my question.

But for Rias to reincarnate a former enemy as her servant was certainly unexpected.

With that matter settled though the next arc coming up was Riser Phenex. If their plot followed the same storyline then there would be no need for me to get myself involved with them.

Just like with Sona, my status as a High-Class Devil would prevent me from getting involved in Rias's affair with Riser. Hyoudou and Rias would have to deal with that problem on their own.

Sona soon interrupted my thoughts when she snapped her fingers and a huge cake appeared on the table in the room, causing myself and the other members of my peerage and the Student Council to tremble in fear.

The cake of death!

Asia was the only one oblivious to what was going on.

It was moments like these that made me wish that I hadn't involved myself with Sona. I could still remember the awful taste of the first cake Sona had made for me when I had first joined Kuoh Academy after they had made the school co-ed.

To be honest, I would not have minded dying then and there again. That cake was potent enough to kill a God!

The only one who truly enjoyed Sona's cakes was her older sister, Serafall Leviathan. Just wait until Saji gets here and he would also experience the taste of Sona's cakes of death.

"To celebrate the welcoming of Zeroth's newest servant, I made this cake for all of us to enjoy!" Sona announced.

"Oh no," Kuisha whispered beside me, her skin becoming pale along with everyone else's.

"I was never here-nya," Kuroka hid her presence and immediately fled the room.

Damn you, woman!

Man I should really get her to teach me how to use Senjutsu and Youjutsu to avoid scenarios like these in the future.

"Save me, Zero-sama," Jeanne cried.

"I should have seen this coming," Reya groaned.

You and me both. Of course Sona would want to celebrate the welcoming of my newest servant with her cake.

Tsubaki gave me a strained look when I glanced at her. "I-I couldn't stop her."

And just like that the joyful mood of the room dropped when they all reluctantly took a bite out of Sona's cake, with Kuroka being the sole exception.

I was definitely going to save a slice for her later and force her to eat it.

Perhaps this was my punishment for fucking up canon, but for now all that mattered was to endure the cake of death. The road to becoming the strongest would have to wait.

* * *

 **And that is the end of the first volume of the light novels. Sorry for it being so short, but when it comes down to it, it will definitely be shorter because at this moment Zeroth is leagues ahead of Issei in terms of power so Raynare's group didn't really stand a chance against him or his peerage.  
**

 **To make up for some of Rias's peerage members going over to Zeroth's, some characters from the series will be taking their place. I already have two members in mind for Rias's group: Raynare and Ravel. As for the Rook, no idea yet.**

 **For those of you wanting future references to Zeroth's peerage and harem, they will be kept posted and up to date on my profile page.**

 **Next up will be the Riser arc, but Zeroth won't be involved much with Rias's peerage as they will instead be traveling to the Underworld.**

 **Anyways, that's it for me, and once again thanks for all of your support.**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER: Return to the Underworld  
**


	7. Return to the Underworld

Sweat dripped from my body after unleashing another powerful shockwave from my fist that crashed into a wall, obliterating it.

Training.

Even after I had attained the level of strength that Sairaorg had at the start of the light novels I had never stopped training my body to the limit. My power of destruction could only take me so far as Rias had showed during her fight against Vali during the Azazel Cup.

To think that ten years ago I could barely throw a punch showed how much I had improved since then. It was all thanks to my instructor and Regulus that my power level had increased this much. That and a Devil's body were far more superior to that of a human's if one constantly trained their body.

Strength was absolute in the world of Devils and I fully intended to transcend past that.

Plus with all of my future enemies being close to God-level it would be stupid on my part to not want to get strong.

Only my mother had seemed to show some disapproval of my rigorous training after Magdaran had been born.

"Why do you not spend some time with your little brother?" She would sometimes ask.

It was because that he was still a baby and my focus at the time was to get stronger.

Yet when Magdaran could walk and talk he would sometimes accompany me when I trained and was no doubt confused as to why a pure-blooded Devil like myself would train so hard. Being born with the power of destruction, Magdaran couldn't see the point of my training like most pure Devils who only cared about demonic powers.

"Why do you train all the time?" Magdaran had asked once.

"To become the strongest," was my only response.

Perhaps I should have spent more time with Magdaran instead of training, but he had their mother to look after him and keep him company, and I was too focused on my drive to prepare for the coming conflict with the Khaos Brigade to spare any time with him.

Back then, that was the only thing that mattered to me after regaining the memories of my past life.

The only one who actually seemed to show some approval of the results of my training happened to be the one person I hated the most, my father. Much to my annoyance he would sometimes gloat over the fact that his son and heir was now regarded as the strongest amongst the young Devils. He was no doubt pleased with the fact that his son had managed to surpass one of the Gremory siblings.

Now though my new focus was on completing my peerage in time for the gathering of the Young Devils. That was the moment where the true results of my training would shine if I managed to defeat Hyoudou Issei, proving to the Devils that I was indeed the Strongest Youth of my generation. The Great King of Bael would be the one standing on the top, not the Sekiryuutei.

"Zeroth-san, here's your tea. I'm sorry for being late."

Turning towards the source of the voice, I watched as Asia entered the arena.

Luckily for Asia, I reacted in time when she tripped and caught her before she hit the ground. "You should be more careful of your surroundings, Asia."

"T-Thank you," Asia blushed when she realized how close their bodies were.

Even after becoming a Devil she was still a bit clumsy, but she still had that pure heart of hers.

A month had passed since the conflict with Raynare's group and Asia joining my peerage as my second Bishop. However, unlike with Hyoudou and Rias, she never had to experience the pain of death. Since then she had joined Kuoh Academy as a second-year student and had moved in to my home. It was still hard to believe how many boxes Asia had that needed to be moved in.

"You didn't need to go out of your way to prepare this for me." I told her while sipping the tea Asia gave me after helping her back up.

In my past life I probably would never have enjoyed drinking tea, but since I had a long life ahead of me as a Devil I might as well use the opportunity to try new things that I never had before.

"I heard from everyone that Zeroth-san trains constantly everyday so I wanted to be of help to Zeroth-san as well. Though I was only able to prepare tea today."

"Well thank you, it's delicious."

Asia smiled with joy at my praise.

It was hard not to fall for the beautiful blonde haired beauty, as the temptation to take her and make her my woman grew stronger. I wouldn't mind at all to lose my virginity to Asia to be honest. It was no wonder that a Devil like Diodora would want to corrupt a beautiful and pure woman like Asia.

Now I could sort of understand why Hyoudou strongly desired to protect Asia when many students at school would confess to her, but were refused. Of course that just made all the male students at the school hate me even more when they saw me come to school everyday with the new blonde student.

"What's the matter, Zeroth-san?"

Asia tilted her head with that cute confused look of hers.

To hell with it, I was not Hyoudou who was too afraid to act upon his feelings. She was my servant and a member of my harem and I was going to be the one to take the initiative.

It might have been my greed as a Devil that caused me to go through with it, but at that moment the only thing that was on my mind was Asia, as I cupped her chin and pressed my lips against hers, causing Asia's eyes to widen in shock and surprise.

She was now my woman and no one was going to get in between us or any other member of my peerage.

* * *

Being one of the most popular guys at school had been amusing at first, but now it was just boring. Especially when it came to the other guys at the school who envied my position.

Now it kind of made me appreciate not being popular at school in my past life.

I could feel their glares on me as I walked through the school gate, with Asia by my side, who was blushing whenever she looked at me. No doubt she still couldn't comprehend what had happened after they had kissed.

It was a spur of the moment, yet it felt so good to claim Asia as mine, especially when she had told me that was her first kiss. She was still inexperienced, but given time she could become an excellent lover like the other members of my peerage.

"Kuh, just seeing him walk with Asia-san is pissing me off."

"First Kuisha-onee-sama and Jeanne-san, now even Asia-san!"

"Why is it that all of the beautiful blonde women walk in the same direction as that guy?"

That was right, the only member of my peerage who didn't go to Kuoh Academy was Kuroka since she didn't see the need for it. I agreed with her since the only guy who could mess around with her body was me.

All the guys at school would probably be pissed even more if they learned that another beauty like Kuroka also lived in the same house as me. Though it would be hard for Kuroka to fit in, considering her cat ears and all that since she preferred her Nekomata form to her human one.

"Have fun with your physical education today. I will see you again after school."

Asia nodded her head. "T-Thank you, Zeroth-san. It's my first time so I'm excited."

"You will be fine, don't worry about it."

Deciding to mess with the guys even more, I turned Asia's head towards me and pressed my lips against hers, slipping my tongue in and coiling it around hers.

Around them the guys and girls cried out in shock and despair at the sight of them kissing. It was just too easy messing with them.

Pulling away, a string of saliva dripped from their tongues.

"Until then, Asia."

"Y-Yes, Zeroth-san."

Blushing like a tomato, Asia turned away and headed off to her classroom while I did the same.

I was not at all surprised to be greeted by the sight of Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri. Though today Rias seemed a bit down and I knew what was bothering her. The Riser arc was about to begin.

"You are quite bold, Zeroth," Sona greeted me.

"I just wanted to show them all that she was my woman."

"That girl was originally a Sister, wasn't she?" Rias asked.

"Yeah, she possesses a rare Sacred Gear."

"You have weird tastes."

"Says the one who made a Fallen Angel into her servant."

Amano Yuuma, the alias Raynare used on her date with Hyoudou now used that same one as a second-year high school student of Kuoh Academy. Like Asia, she was in the same class as Hyoudou. No doubt it was awkward for Hyoudou to be working alongside his former girlfriend and the one who killed him.

What was Azazel thinking, forcing his subordinate to become a Devil and work alongside the man she killed? Hyoudou would probably suffer even more, dealing with the trauma about getting close to other women because of her.

Well it wasn't my problem so he would have to deal with it himself. He was an obstacle after all in my path to become the strongest.

"The Governor General apologized for her actions and said that it was to be her punishment," Rias sighed. "Though Ise is still having a tough time dealing with her."

"It can't be helped. She was the one who killed him after all."

Sona frowned, narrowing her eyes at me. "I still can't believe that you went on your own to deal with them. Your actions could have restarted the war."

"Those guys didn't stand a chance against my fists. Besides Rias got a new servant and there are no more Fallen Angels to worry about in this town."

"That still doesn't justify your actions."

"I couldn't let those guys roam around and do as they pleased. And Asia needed my help. She didn't want to go back over to their side."

Rias smiled. "So you decided to fight them over a girl you just met."

"She was worth it."

The bell then rang, signaling that class was about to start soon and I made my way to their classroom, with Rias and Sona trailing behind me.

"This conversation isn't over," Sona said.

"It is for me."

Once they realized the true power of Asia's Twilight Healing, they would understand why I had made her into my servant. That and because I didn't want Rias or Hyoudou to have her.

Sure I was being selfish, but those two got to enjoy her in the original timeline. Now it was my turn to enjoy her. Besides, what was the point of having the knowledge of the light novels if I didn't use them to my advantage?

* * *

"We are back!"

"Good work."

Asia and Jeanne had returned home after finishing handing out the leaflets. The two of them were the perfect pair considering their past affiliation to the Church. And since Asia had just come to Japan from northern Europe last month she needed someone to help adjust her to Japanese culture. And as a King and High-Class Devil it wouldn't have made sense for me to help do the duties of a low-class Devil.

"I will go make some drinks for you two." Kuisha offered, leaving the room while Kuroka lounged about on the couch.

Seriously, out of all of my servants Kuroka was the laziest of them all. Not to mention she would sometimes make a mess of the house, and would not clean up after herself, leaving the job to Kuisha, Jeanne, or Asia. Sometimes Kuroka would make me regret turning her into my servant. Were it not for her body and abilities she probably would not have been part of my peerage.

"Now then, Asia it is time for your debut as a Devil tonight. You will be going to the contractor's place through the magic-circle."

"M-Me?" Asia pointed to herself while panicking.

She really was cute when she showed different emotions.

"Yeah. Handing out the leaflets will end today."

Walking up to Asia, I drew the magic-circle of the Bael Clan on Asia's hand. There was no need to check her demonic power as unlike Hyoudou, she would be able to transport through the magic-circle with ease.

Kuisha who was in charge of the magic-circle started to read the Devil's letters that appeared in a section of the magic-circle.

"There is a client trying to summon us who wants to wish something that Asia can handle."

"Then I will leave the rest up to you Asia."

"Y-Yes!"

Asia then went over towards the center of the magic-circle and teleported to the contractor's location.

Just as Asia left however, much to my surprise, the floor of the room flashed and the symbol of the Bael group appeared from the magic-circle. Now this was something that I was not expecting.

Appearing from the magic-circle was a young gray-haired man, wearing a noble's attire.

"Sectaas."

What was my brother's Queen doing here? It would seem that my presence here was causing some changes to the light novels already.

"It has been a while, Zeroth-sama." Sectaas bowed his head.

"What are you doing here?"

"I would prefer if we could have this conversation in private. Your Queen can stay of course."

"Very well. Jeanne, Kuroka, leave us."

Obeying my order, Jeanne and Kuroka left, leaving the three of them alone.

Sectaas seemed to notice that one of my servants was not here. "I was informed that you had another Bishop. Where is she?"

"She left just before you came to take on one of our contractors. Now then, what are you doing here?"

None of this made any sense. Why would my brother's queen come at a time like this? The only one who should have dealt with the arrival of new Devils in the town was Rias.

"Zeroth-sama, as you well know, Rias Gremory is engaged to Riser Phenex."

Aw hell no, this was not going where I think this was going.

"And with the low number of pure Devils after the war, your father has finally arranged a match for you."

No doubt he sought advice from the previous generations before making the decision.

"Your father has requested your presence back in the underworld to meet with your betrothed."

"And who is she?"

Sectaas smiled. "You know as well as I how much your father despises the Gremory Clan. Just as they arranged a match with the Phenex Clan, he also made one with them."

It made sense that my father would choose Ravel Phenex since she was not an heiress like Rias or Sona. Once she married me she would leave her clan and take on the Bael name, just like my mother and aunt Venelana.

Not to mention that the Phenex Clan had the largest amount of Devil offspring and my father thought he would be able to get the same results with Ravel.

Well, at least he chose someone that I was okay with, though Ravel wouldn't be able to be a part of my peerage since I had already used my two Bishops. This gave me an opportunity though to meet up with Regulus again since he was forbidden from going to the human world.

"When does my father want me to return?"

"As soon as possible, Zeroth-sama."

The only one who didn't seem pleased with the announcement of my match was Kuisha. Don't worry, I will still be able to give you plenty of love.

Looks like they were returning to the underworld a lot sooner than I had expected.

* * *

Ravel Phenex, the only daughter and the youngest child of the Phenex Clan. It was hard to believe that after all this time my father had finally found a match for me. Though just as Sectaas said the decision of my match with Ravel was probably influenced by Rias's match to Riser, since my father despised the Gremory Clan and wanted a similar match as theirs.

At least Rias wasn't alone with dealing with an unexpected betrothal.

Though Sona had not been pleased when I had informed her that I would be taking a leave of absence from school due to family matters. Their daily chess matches would have to be put on hold for the time being while I was away.

It made sense though why my father would choose Ravel. Any future child of ours would be able to possess both the Bael Clan's power of destruction and the Phenex's power of immortality.

In the end that was all Devils cared about, power and greed. My father would get a pure-blooded Devil grandchild, with the potential of having the abilities of both clans. He wouldn't have to worry though about me breaking off the betrothal like Rias because I didn't mind having Ravel in my harem.

And I wouldn't have to worry about her joining Hyoudou's peerage or team since her allegiance would be with me.

But there was the matter of whether or not Ravel desired the match. Not like she would have a choice though as unlike Rias or Sona, she wouldn't be able to easily break their betrothal off.

That and because I wanted her to be my woman not Hyoudou's, because he already had one pure-blooded Devil in his harem and didn't need another one.

The existence of pure-blooded Devils was necessary, as someone like Riser would be able to understand.

It would also be interesting to see in the future how powerful my child with Ravel could become with the abilities of both the Bael Clan and Phenex at their disposal.

"Zeroth-sama, you may join your servants now if you wish." Sectaas announced, interrupting my thoughts.

"Then I'll do just that."

Standing up, I made way through the train to where my servants would be.

As the train made its way through the Bael territory it reminded me of my first trip to the human world. Back then it was just me, Kuisha, and Kuroka. It had been a silent ride but I had used the opportunity to ask Kuisha why she had joined my peerage.

The light novels didn't explain much about her backstory with Sairaorg since the main focus of it was on Hyoudou and Rias.

She had smiled then at my question. "You know that Sirzechs-sama's queen was originally from the House of Lucifuge, one of the Extra Demons."

Of course I did.

"I want to become just like her, to become one of the strongest women of the Underworld like Grayfia-sama, Serafall-sama, and the second-ranked Champion of the Rating Game, Roygun Belphegor."

She believed that if she followed me who also desired to become the strongest she would be able to make a name for herself like those women.

There was another reason though why I wanted to become the strongest. To prepare for the coming conflict and to survive. I had no intention of dying for a second time.

That and to become more famous than the Sekiryuutei because why the hell not.

The door to my beautiful servant's compartment slid open and I stepped in to see Jeanne and Asia talking together, Kuroka napping as usual, and Kuisha looking out the window.

Asia stood up when she saw me and made her way over to me. "Zeroth-san, is all of this truly your family's territory?"

"Yeah, compared to the Gremory's territory, ours is three times their size."

As the highest-ranking clan of the 72 Pillars the Great King of Bael had control over the largest amount of land in the underworld compared to the other clans. Though I was probably wrong about the size of their territory since I didn't really put much attention to their lands it was definitely larger than the Gremory's territory.

"By the way, did they finish scanning you into the database?"

"Y-Yes, they did!"

Jeanne smiled. "I'm certain we would all know if Sister-chan was an imposter."

"That is true-nya. Compared to the rest of us, Zeroth has been spending a lot of time with Asia." Kuroka giggled.

"There's no need to get jealous. After all, I've kissed all of you plenty more times than I have with Asia."

Grinning, I tilted Asia's head towards me and covered her lips with mine, slipping my tongue inside of her mouth while gently squeezing her breasts. Asia moaned before responding to the kiss.

"At this rate you two are going I wouldn't be surprised if you had sex with her already-nya."

Pulling away, I smirked while Asia leaned against my body. "Well I wouldn't mind if Asia is fine with it. Though I think she's had enough for now."

Asia was blushing madly from being watched while they kissed and passed out of sheer embarassement.

Her reaction couldn't be helped since she was still innocent doing it in front of others. Though she had managed to endure it at school because the students there were all strangers to her still unlike now. All the girls in her classroom probably pestered her about her relationship with me. Hyoudou was probably jealous of me now because of my relationship with another blonde beauty at the school.

"We'll be having another one in the group soon enough," Kuisha muttered.

"Yeah, our King is finally getting betrothed. I'm sure he won't mind though since she's another blonde beauty." Kuroka said.

"We all know though he'll still treat us all equally," Jeanne added.

"That is right. Nothing will change between us now that I am betrothed. I'll just probably have to spend more time with her is all."

"You'll need to let Sister-chan know. She'll probably get jealous."

"She will understand just like the rest of us," Kuisha said.

While the girls continued to talk about my betrothal, I sat down looking out the window of the train.

While I was dealing with my own problems, Rias would be having her hands full training her peerage for ten days in preparation of her Rating Game with Riser Phenex.

There was no doubt in my mind that they would still lose, even with Raynare on her peerage, though she had more fighting experience than Asia. But with Asia on my peerage how would Hyoudou be able to defeat Riser if he didn't have her cross or holy water?

Whatever, I'll worry about it once I was invited to Rias's engagement party with Riser.

* * *

[We will soon be arriving at the Bael main residence. We will soon be arriving at the Bael main residence. Please enjoy your stay.]

Finally, about time we arrived.

"Sectaas, is the Phenex family already here?"

"Yes, though Riser-sama will not be attending as he has other matters to deal with."

Fooling around with his peerage most likely before his Rating Game with Rias. Though it was a surprise that he would not be around while his younger sister met with her betrothed.

He didn't show it as much as Sirzechs did in the light novels, but the guy seemed to also be a sis-con like Sirzechs.

That was fine by me though because I didn't feel like dealing with him, since he would no doubt be sending lecherous looks at my servants.

Looking out the window, I could the see the elite guards of the Great King waiting for them, all lined up on both sides of the path to the castle. Unlike the Gremory Clan, the Bael Clan was all calm and serious when welcoming their family member back. There was no need for the flairs or dramatics.

Sectaas stepped off the train once it stopped and turned around before bowing his head. "Welcome home, Zeroth-sama."

"Thank you."

Following him off the train, the other members of my peerage trailed behind me, with only Asia looking at the Bael Castle in awe due to it being her first time being here.

"Lord Bael is waiting for you in his study room with the other members of the Phenex Clan," Sectaas informed me.

"That's good to know."

Staring at the Bael Castle brought back unwelcomed memories of my childhood before I left for the human world.

Were it not for the memories of my past life and the knowledge of the light novels, I probably would have turned out just like my father and the other members of my family, besides my mother and Magdaran.

Even Magdaran hated living in the castle because their father treated him as the next heir after me, not at all like a parent and their child. Hopefully Magdaran didn't turn out like the rest of the elite Devils of their family.

The only thing that kept me going was my training to become the strongest. Magdaran's passion for plants probably also did the same for him. The beautiful purple flowers that were planted in the courtyard were brought back to life thanks to Magdaran's research. Only their father had not approved of his achievement while others congratulated him. The Great King House was symbolized by destruction, so the proposal of plant research was simply shameful, according to their father.

Not like that man had ever achieved anything in his life other than becoming the next Great King of Bael.

"Zeroth-nii-sama! Welcome back!"

A young boy with black hair and purple eyes broke out from the line of maids and ran up to embrace me. While I had a muscular and broad appearance, Magdaran had a small and slim figure due to his lack of interest with training.

"Magdaran, it's been far too long. You've grown a bit."

I hugged Magdaran back. They were the future of the Great King and unlike their father they would bring changes to their clan.

"I almost forgot. Magdaran, I have a new member of my group. Her name is Asia Argento."

Magdaran smiled and looked at the new member of my group. "Nice to meet you, my name is Magdaran Bael, the next heir after my brother."

"I-It's nice to meet you, Magdaran-sama," Asia bowed her head.

"Now then, I should go and see our father. We both know that he does not like to be kept waiting. Sectaas, please show everyone their rooms."

"As you wish, Zeroth-sama," Sectaas bowed his head and led my peerage to their rooms once they entered the castle while I broke off from the group and made my way to my father's study room.

Magdaran parted ways soon afterwards to talk with the other members of his peerage. Though I had not acquired the original members of Sairaorg's peerage, I helped introduce them to Magdaran who eventually turned them into his servants.

Turning around the corner I was soon greeted by the sight of my mother who was talking with another woman whom I assumed was Lady Phenex.

She looked like an older but more mature version of Ravel, with her hair up and adorned with expensive accessories. If that was how Ravel would look like when she got older than I did not mind at all if she became my wife.

When my mother saw me she smiled as I approached them.

"I can tell by your appearance alone that you have gotten stronger, my son."

"I never stopped training when I left for the human world, mother."

Lady Phenex then came up to me and examined me. "He is quite the handsome young man, Misla. I can see why he is regarded as the strongest of his generation. Compared to Rias who was exceptional from birth with her abilities, you trained and honed in on your abilities, am I right, Zeroth-san?"

"Y-Yeah."

Well that was a weird way to start up a conversation. I didn't expect to be receiving that kind of praise from Ravel's mother.

Lady Phenex smiled then looked at my mother. "I think that he will be a perfect match for Ravel."

"I am glad that you agree."

"We shouldn't be keeping your husband and mine waiting any longer. My daughter is also probably anxious waiting to meet your son."

And with that she opened the door and entered my father's study room with my mother following in after her.

Sighing, I headed into the room after them.

Time to get this over with.

* * *

 **Sorry for taking a while to get this chapter up. Just took a me a while to get started on this and was busy helping move things. Probably surprised some of you though with Zeroth's betrothal to Ravel. That means though that Ravel will not be part of Rias's peerage for her Rating Game with Zeroth and will have to find a replacement for her along with another Rook.**

 **Again thanks for all of your support and feedback, it keeps me going with this story.**

 **And for those of you hoping for longer chapters, 5 thousand words is like my limit when writing a chapter for some reason, so don't expect any longer ones like 10k or something.**

 **Anyways that's it from me, see you all next time.  
**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER:** **An Unexpected Guest**


	8. An Unexpected Guest

The 72 Pillars, the continued existence of the pure-blooded Devils, that was the reason for the meeting between the Bael Clan and Phenex Clan.

Just as the light novels had described it, following the two previous wars the 72 Pillars had lost a great number of pure-blooded Devils. Not even half the number of Devils of the 72 Pillars had survived. In order to prevent the extinction of the pure bloods it was only natural that they would arrange marriages between the remaining Devils of the 72 Pillars.

And just like with the Gremory Clan there were only two siblings in the House of Bael, with me being the future Head of the House and Magdaran being next in line after me. The Phenex Clan had the most number of pure-blooded Devil offspring and since Ravel was not the heir to the clan like Rias or Sona, she would leave the clan once we were wed and take the Bael name as her own just as Aunt Venelana and my mother did when they left their own clans.

That was why the members of the Phenex clan had gathered here along with my father and mother.

It was also why at this very moment that Rias was training with her peerage in preparation of her Rating Game with Riser because she did not approve of him as her future husband.

Yet this situation reminded me a lot of the world of ice and fire, where the head of the house was expected to arrange matches for their own children or any unwed younger siblings. In the case of High-Class Devils it was only natural that the current heads would arrange matches with other pure-blooded clans in order to preserve their race, just as a noble from an ancient house would make a match with another house of equal or higher standing instead of with a commoner.

Unlike Rias, I had no intention of breaking my betrothal to Ravel because I could still enjoy my harem after we were wed. Not to mention that our marriage was to keep the House of Bael pure for they had the purest blood of all Devils after the fall of the Old Maou. This was the one duty as the next Great King of Bael I could not avoid.

"Now that we are all here, let us begin," my father spoke, breaking the silence.

"Lord Bael, I thank you once again for accepting our offer," Lord Phenex said.

Glancing at the members of the Phenex Clan I noticed that their second son was also not present. That guy must really have his hands full being the boss of a media company and all that.

"There is no need. This union is all for the sake of the continued existence of our race."

More like more wealth and power for the House of Bael. There was no doubt in my mind that my father had agreed to the match because of the Phenex Clan's Phoenix tears.

Having a member with the Phenex Clan's abilities and Phoenix Tears would be able to increase the Great King's wealth especially if our future children also inherited Ravel's abilities.

Children, huh.

In my past life I never really thought about having children and when I had regained my memories the only thing that was on my mind was to get stronger. I was always so carefree and couldn't help but wonder what kind of parent I would be.

Definitely not like my father, that was for damn sure. The future members of the Great King of Bael would be different from the previous generations.

"Then let us begin. As you well know the number of pure-blooded Devils have decreased since the previous wars and my wife and I have agreed that our daughter will find no better match than your son, who is regarded as the Strongest Youth of his generation," Lord Phenex said.

My father smiled. Leave it to Lord Phenex to boost my father's ego.

"Indeed. He has also become quite popular and will no doubt be able to rise through the ranks easily once he is able to participate in the Rating Games."

"That is why we believe that your son will be able to protect and look after our daughter," Lady Phenex added.

"And by having our daughter next to the Strongest Youth we can feel assured."

"Not to mention that this marriage will ensure that the House of Bael will remain pure," my father noted.

Lord Phenex smiled. "Indeed."

"Unlike my niece, my son knows the importance of this marriage. Isn't that right, Zeroth?"

"Of course."

Even in this kind of setting my father loved to compare me to the Gremory siblings. Was he really that pissed off with the current generation of the Gremory Clan for inheriting the power of destruction?

"Then if this matter is settled with we will leave our daughter in your care, Zeroth," Lady Phenex said, surprising me.

Man these guys sure did move fast.

"My youngest son Riser had once tried to get Ravel to join his peerage but I put a stop to that once I began negotiating with your father," Lord Phenex informed. "You need not worry about using one of your Evil Pieces to recruit her into your peerage."

"T-Thank you."

Well now that was definitely a surprise.

It seemed that my presence here was causing a lot more changes to the world than I had anticipated. At least I didn't have to worry about using any of my Evil Pieces for Ravel.

"Ravel will also be joining you when you return to the human world. I trust that you will protect her from any weird pests that would come near her?" Lady Phenex asked.

"You can leave that to me."

Keeping all the guys away from Ravel in the human world would be an easy task for me.

"Good." Lady Phenex then looked at her daughter. "Ravel."

"Yes, mother."

"You know what you must do? As the daughter from the House of Phenex you must work very hard so you don't tarnish the name of our house and deepen your relation with Zeroth Bael."

Talk about a tall order especially when it was with a man she had just met.

"Of course!" Ravel exclaimed, with her face turning red.

My mother then stepped forward, speaking for the first time. "I will have my son send reports of their relationship while they are in the human world."

"Thank you."

Was that really necessary?

"Then it is time that we left. Ruval, do you have any words for the boy?" Lord Phenex asked, making his way over to the door.

Ruval came up to me. He was like a nobler version of Riser, with blonde hair and dark blue eyes. "You plan on participating in the Rating Games, am I right?"

"Yeah."

Once there were no more threats like the Khaos Brigade to worry about.

Ruval grinned. "Then I look forward to having a Rating Game with you one day." And with those last words he left along with his father.

That was weird.

The last one to speak to me was Lady Phenex, who had a serious expression on her face. "I will tell you one thing about my daughter," she whispered. "Ravel's true nature is the path of supremacy. The path which is easy to create a grudge from others by governing the world through military force and wisdom."

The path of supremacy, huh.

"If you rely on Ravel then you will certainly fall into the path of supremacy. So I ask you to not make a mistake in how to use her."

She then looked at her daughter one last time and smiled before following the rest of her family out of the room.

"Allow me to accompany you," my mother said to Lady Phenex, smiling at me before leaving me with Ravel and my father.

My father then stood up and made his way to the door before stopping beside me. "You may stay a few days here before returning to the human world. If you like you can also see your Pawn. And do not disappoint me."

Leave it to my father to piss me off.

"I will not fail you."

"Good." My father nodded his head and then left, leaving me alone in the room with Ravel.

Might as well get started to know her since we would be together for the next 10,000 years.

* * *

"How long are you going to be here for?"

"A week at the most."

At the moment I was currently hanging out with Magdaran in the courtyard of the Bael Castle while Regulus slept under a tree in his lion form. Around them the elite guards of the Great King patrolled the battlements of the castle. It was so peaceful and quiet here and were it not for my father and my past memories returning I probably would have stared here instead of going to the human world.

Even at such a young age Magdaran was a bright lad, as in addition the extinct flowers he had brought to life, Magdaran had also cultivated a rare type of apple. He was a few years older than Millicas and around the same age as Shirone.

Taking a bite out of one of the apples Magdaran had cultivated, it was easy to tell that he was eagerly waiting to see what I thought of them.

"They're not bad. You should start selling them to other areas in the Underworld."

Magdaran beamed at my praise. "Mother thought the same thing and said that she enjoyed the taste of it as well."

"These apples that you've grown could even become the best in the Underworld. They will definitely become a specialty within the Bael territory."

"Father doesn't agree," Magdaran frowned, looking down at the ground.

I reached over while taking another bite of the apple and ruffled his hair, causing him to chuckle and swat my hand away. "Don't let him get to you. We're better than him and don't need his approval."

"Is that why you went to the human world?"

"No. There were other reasons for me wanting to go there."

To complete my peerage, gain battle experience against strong foes like Kokabiel, Loki, the Khaos Brigade, and accomplish feats that would not be possible to do in the underworld.

And because of Cleria's death. I didn't really know her, but I could have done something to prevent her death had I not been locked up in the Bael Castle.

Not anymore. With my presence at Kuoh Academy, I could now bring far greater changes to the world than if I were still stuck here in the Underworld under the watchful gaze of my father.

You couldn't save everyone, but the ones I could save I would.

"Will you be training while you are here?" Magdaran asked.

"A little bit, but at the moment there are other matters to deal with."

"Can I come visit you in the human world?"

"Yeah, anytime you'd like."

"Sorry I'm late!"

Arriving at the courtyard was a beautiful blonde-haired girl, with drill-like roll hair on both sides of her head, wearing a dark red noble dress, my future wife.

"It's fine. My brother was keeping me company."

Realizing that he was intruding, Magdaran stood up and bowed his head. "Then I will take my leave now."

Once Magdaran had left, Ravel noticed Regulus curled up under the tree. "Is that your rumored Pawn? I heard that you used 6 or 7 Pawn pieces on him."

"Seven. Regulus introduce yourself to Ravel."

There was no point in lying to my future wife. She would find out sooner or later and all the members of the Great King faction knew about Regulus.

The Nemean Lion yawned and opened his eyes, looking at Ravel. [Nice to meet you. My name is Regulus, the Nemean Lion sealed within the Longinus Regulus Nemea.]

Ravel's eyes widened in surprised. "A-A Longinus!"

"That is right. Please keep this information to yourself, only those of the Great King faction know of his existence."

"Y-Yes!"

It wouldn't do for the information of my Pawn to reach Rias before our Rating Game.

"How would you like to see something special today, Ravel?"

Ravel tilted her head at me in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You'll see. Come Regulus, we're going to the training arena."

[It's been a while since you've used me.]

We headed down to the training arena and Ravel stood to the side while Regulus waited for my order.

"Then let us begin."

It was time to use the Balance Breaker of the Nemean Lion after being apart for so long.

[I'm ready.]

Regulus then began to glow in a golden color and turned into light particles before surrounding my body.

I could feel the overwhelming power of the lion flowing around me. But even this power would not be enough when I faced Hyoudou who would have the Illegal Move Triana and Cardinal Crimson Promotion in our Rating Game.

That was why I needed to find a different answer to Breakdown the Beast.

"Balance Break."

[Nemean Lion Balance Breaker!]

My surroundings were blown away as a dazzling light spread around me.

After the light faded my body was covered in golden colored plate armor, with the motif of a lion. Golden hair flowed from the helm with a lion-like face on the chest, where the eyes glowed.

"Amazing." Ravel stared at me in awe. "You must be the first pure-blooded Devil to a wield a Sacred Gear not to mention a Longinus as your own."

"Yeah. This is my Balance Breaker of the Regulus Nemea, a sub-species, the Regulus Rey Leather Rex."

Sure this was the name that Sairaorg had probably come up when he had attained Balance Breaker, but I doubted that I would have been able to come up with a cooler name than his.

[You have certainly grown stronger since you last wore me.]

Of course, I am a Devil who never stops training.

[Indeed you are.]

"You aren't satisfied though with this power," Ravel noted, easily reading my mind.

"That is right."

Even with my power of destruction and Touki, would they still be enough to defeat Hyoudou when he reached his Queen form?

"Then you should try combining your own powers with that of the lion."

Combining all of my powers together, huh.

That didn't sound like a bad idea.

It could be possible especially if I managed to obtain a different form that surpassed Breakdown the Beast like Vali's Empireo Juggernaut Overdrive. With that kind of power it might also be possible to surpass that of a Super Devil or even that of Diabolos Dragon, though the former was highly unlikely.

"Thank you, Ravel."

Ravel smiled. "I'm just glad that I could be of some use to you, Zeroth-sama."

And just like that, I began searching for an alternate power that could surpass Breakdown the Beast with Ravel's help.

* * *

Family dinners, one of the few things that I did not miss while in the human world.

Yet today was different as usually it was just the Bael family members, but today Ravel would also be joining them at the table. Our servants had their meals separately, much to my disappointment.

When I became the next Head things around here would definitely change for the better.

Luckily though my father decided to act like a proper noble in front of Ravel. "Nine more days until your brother's Rating Game with my niece. Who do you think will win?"

"My brother of course! He hasn't lost a single match since he started participating in the Rating Games." Ravel smiled.

"Who do you think will win, Zeroth?" My mother asked.

"Riser."

There was no doubt in my mind that Riser would win against Rias. Even with the extra amount of training Hyoudou had gotten because of my suggestion and the addition of Raynare it would still not be enough against Riser's full peerage.

Then there was the matter of how Hyoudou would be able to defeat Riser when he challenged him. He wouldn't have Asia's help this time around since she was apart of my peerage.

Though I didn't really care what happened to them, Riser needed to lose in order to change his ways.

Hopefully Asia wouldn't mind if I borrowed her cross and holy water and lent them to Hyoudou. That was the only help I was going to give him, after that he was on his own.

My father chuckled. "The outcome of this match was decided the moment my niece decided to challenge Riser Phenex."

Because it was an almost impossible challenge to overcome since Rias had no experience in Rating Games and her peerage wasn't even complete while Riser's was.

"By the way Ravel, in terms of school in the human world, which year are you in?"

I decided to ask her because I couldn't help but wonder if my presence here had changed anything else about the world I once knew.

"I would be a second-year in the human world," Ravel replied.

So she was a year older than her original counterpart. That meant she would be in the same class as Asia and Jeanne. Not to mention that her body had more growth than Asia's.

Comparing Ravel to her mother there was no doubt in my mind that she would be just as beautiful as her.

"Two of my servants will be in the same year as you then. If you need any help getting used to the human world just ask them."

"I will, thank you."

"I also forgot, your uncle from the Vapula Clan will be arriving here later this week along with some guests," my mother informed me.

My uncle, huh. Well it shouldn't have been any surprise that I had one considering that my mother came from the clan and she would no doubt have siblings of her own.

My father frowned. "Now that you mention it the first Great King will also be coming here."

"What do you think they want?" I asked.

Zekram Bael and my uncle were coming here? What could those two want if they were coming here?

Certainly not for a friendly visit that was for sure.

"We'll know when they get here," my father replied.

That wasn't a very helpful answer at all, but that was to be expected from a man like my father.

After dinner I headed back down to the training arena to figure out how to combine my powers with that of Regulus's.

Black flames swirled around my arms and legs while my Touki surged around my body. To keep both abilities active in my Balance Breaker state was something I had not considered before as it took a lot of my stamina just to have them active by themselves.

Was a similar form to that of Diabolos Dragon my only answer?

I doubted Ophis's blessing would work on me because I didn't have the power of a dragon dwelling inside me like Hyoudou and Vali.

Damn it!

I released a burst of energy from my hand that smashed into a wall, causing it to collapse into rubble.

I didn't want to rely on others for power like Hyoudou. The only things that I needed were my power of destruction, Touki, and Regulus.

Just like Vali I was proud of my heritage as a Bael and only wanted to rely on the powers that I had obtained. Relying on Ophis's blessing for power was not my way.

"I knew I'd find you down here."

Looking up I smiled when Kuisha approached me with her arms folded.

"What are you doing here?"

"For a former Sister, Asia is not used to this luxury like we are. She was hoping if she could sleep with you tonight."

"I don't mind."

"Then I will show her where your room is." Kuisha then noticed Regulus on the floor next to me in his Sacred Gear form. "Training at this hour?"

"Yeah."

I picked up the golden sword and gave it a few swings.

This was the sub-species form that Regulus had turned into, the Sword of the Lion King. The pommel of the sword had a golden lion's head with green eyes. Its destructive power could be compared to that of Xenovia's Durandal when combined with my power of destruction and Touki. However unlike when I was in my Balance Breaker state it did not consume a lot of my stamina.

Kuisha sighed. "Even with the power you have it's still not enough for you."

"It's never enough."

Not until all of my future enemies were destroyed. Only the strong survived in this world and I intended to stay amongst the living, with no intention of dying for a second time.

One death was enough for me.

"Then I suppose I will stay here with you for a while."

"Thank you."

Being the strongest of my generation was never my goal.

I would not stop training until I was stronger than all of my enemies.

* * *

Only two more days until Rias's Rating Game with Riser.

A week had passed since my betrothal to Ravel was announced and Zekram and my uncle had still not shown up at the castle. Could my parents have been wrong about their arrival?

No they were nobles, they wouldn't mess around with something like this.

Still it was only a matter of time before I would need to return to the human world, but I would probably be recalled back anyways once Rias's engagement party to Riser was set.

It would be pointless to return back now with all the events that was about to happen in the underworld.

Well at least nothing important was going on at Kuoh Academy while I was away. The Kokabiel incident where the deaths of God and Maou would be revealed wouldn't happen until a week or so after the Riser arc.

At least it gave me plenty of time to figure out a different answer to Breakdown the Beast while waiting for my uncle and ancestor to show up.

Even though I was nowhere close to finding an answer to my problem.

That just left me frustrated because of my desire to transcend the power of the Breakdown the Beast like Hyoudou and Vali did with Juggernaut Drive.

Combining all three of my powers was a lot harder than expected.

Feeling the flow of my demonic power and Touki surge around my body, I tried once more to compress them into my body.

[We should try doing it in the Breakdown the Beast mode.] Regulus suggested.

Regulus Rey Leather Rex Imperial Purpure, that was the name of my Breakdown the Beast form, the same one Sairaorg used.

Time to see if it would be any different in my Breakdown the Beast form.

I then began to recite the chant of power while my power of destruction and Touki surged around my body.

"This body, this soul, even if it falls into an endless ravine!"

[My Lord and I, we will exhaust this body and this soul to rise up the endless royal road!]

"Raze, triumph, play, and shine!"

[This is the body of a Demonic Beast!]

"Lodged on top of my fist, is the glorious imperial authority!"

My Touki and power of destruction then whipped up a cyclone around me.

"Dance!"

[Dance!]

["Bloom!"]

My power soon increased to the max as the seal of the Nemean Lion was released.

[Breakdown The Beast, Climb Over!]

And with those last words I soon entered the depths of the Regulus Nemea, entrusting my consciousness to Regulus.

The area I soon found myself in was a vast pure white space. On the various round tables and chairs, the past Shishiou sat with their heads high with blank expressions on their faces.

Hyoudou had managed to obtain his Cardinal Crimson Promotion by persuading the past Sekiryuutei and Vali had obtained his Empireo Juggernaut Overdrive by subjugating the past Hakuryuukou, but I was different.

"You all are no longer needed here."

I was the Great King of Bael and did not need to convince or subjugate the past Shishiou. They would either kneel before me or disappear.

The only King of Lions of the Regulus Nemea would be me.

"I will surpass all of you and become the strongest. That is all I wanted to tell you lot."

And with that I returned back to the world of the living, dispelling my Breakdown the Beast form. Even with my demonic power and Touki it was still exhausting on my body to use it for long.

At least when I used it I didn't go berserk like Hyoudou did when he used it the first time.

Regulus, do you think that my words reached them?

[Only time will tell, master. Trying to conquer the past Shishiou has never been heard of before. It might be possible for you though because of your ability to rule over lions.]

I hope you're right.

For now my Regulus Rey Leather Rex Imperial Purpure form would have to do for when I faced Hyoudou in our Rating Game match. It would be more than enough to defeat him since Hyoudou would have a limit on his True Queen form.

The armor around my body then turned into golden particles and turned back into Regulus's lion form.

Looking around at my surroundings it would seem that the servants would be busy again repairing the damage caused from my training.

"Zeroth-san!"

"Why am I not surprised that you are down here, Zero-sama?"

"You just love to destroy your surroundings."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from a Bael-nya."

Making their way over to me were my beautiful servants and my future wife.

"Sorry, I should have let you all know where I would be."

"It's fine, you are the King after all," Ravel said.

"Your father has requested your presence at the castle gates. Zekram-sama as well as your uncle will be arriving soon along with their guests." Kuisha said.

Finally, about time they showed up. They sure did take their time getting here, making everyone wait for them for so long.

Now I would finally be able to find out the purpose of their visit.

It was not because of my betrothal to Ravel because my ancestor wouldn't have gone out of his way for something like that. It had to be because of matters of state. Why else would he come out all the way here?

As for my uncle well that was a different story.

I didn't know him that much and the light novels really never gave much information about the Vapula Clan other then that they were Lion tamers. Though their magic-circle was gold and had the head of a lion as their symbol.

"Let's go then."

We then headed out of the training area with Regulus trailing behind them, morphing back into his human form.

Asia seemed to be nervous and kept close to me, but that was to be expected of her since she had never met my ancestor and uncle before.

"Don't worry so much."

I clasped my hand around hers and she soon relaxed as we approached the castle gates.

Gathered around the castle gates were some guards, my father, mother, and brother. I then recognized my ancestor amongst them as we got closer.

Zekram smiled when he saw me. "There he is, the future of our clan."

My father frowned at my tardiness. "You're late."

"Sorry, I was training."

My father's eyes then fell on Asia, noticing how close she was to me and I could sense disapproval coming from him, but he chose not to say anything while the leader of the Great King faction was here.

There was no doubt in my mind that my father would scold me later for displaying such closeness with my servant while my betrothed was right next to me.

Zekram then came in between them, nodding in approval of my appearance. "I can already tell how much stronger you have gotten since the last time I saw you. You are indeed the Strongest Youth of your generation and the pride of our clan."

"He is indeed."

Stepping forward was a man with a graceful figure wearing a noble's attire with a lion symbol embedded on it. Like my mother he had golden hair and bright green eyes.

"It has been a while, nephew," my uncle greeted, bowing his head. He then looked over at my peerage. "And it is nice to meet all of you as well. My name is Leon Vapula, the current Head of the Vapula Clan."

He then waved his hand to the side and two more guests came up to them.

"And these are my guests."

It was easy to tell what they were the moment my eyes landed on their doll-like faces. One of them was male while the other was female, but they both had blonde hair and red eyes.

They were probably both related to each other.

The male then stepped forward and bowed his head. "It is a pleasure to meet all of you. My name is Marcus Tepes, the eldest son of the 4th King of Tepes and this is my younger half-sister, Valerie."

The beautiful blonde woman stepped forward and curtsied.

No fucking way.

Standing before me was Valerie Tepes, the possessor of the Longinus Sephiroth Graal, and the catalyst of Rizevim's plans to resurrect the Evil Dragons and awaken Trihexa.

What the hell was she doing here of all places?

* * *

 **So yeah, few changes have already been made to the story. I decided to bump Ravel's age up a year to the same age as Asia's and she never became Riser's Bishop. Also I decided to introduce Valerie earlier during the Riser arc and have her placed under the Great King's protection.  
**

 **Hope you guys like it and see you all next time.**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER: Vampires and the Holy Grail  
**


	9. Vampires and the Holy Grail

Not for the first time I couldn't help but glance at the Dhamphir sitting next to me. It was still hard to believe that the Sephiroth Graal was right before my very eyes.

After everyone had been introduced, all the main members of the Bael family, excluding the servants, had gathered in my father's study room along with the two Vampires.

It was no surprise to me that my father looked down on the Vampires, viewing himself as a superior being. He gritted his teeth whenever he had to speak with the eldest son of the Tepes King.

"I thank you once again for taking my sister in," Marcus Tepes said.

Zekram smiled. "If what you said is true about your brother's actions then she is more than welcome here. I would hate for her to fall into the wrong hands."

Hyoudou had definitely not been wrong though about Valerie in the light novels. She truly did bear the beauty of both humans and Vampires, with her short blonde hair, red eyes, and doll-like face. It was amusing to watch her look back and forth at the other Devils in the room except for her brother.

"My father and I only desire peace and quiet, but Marius has different plans. That was why my father sought out the aid of his old friend, Lord Vapula."

So my uncle and the 4th King of Tepes were friends, huh. That was interesting.

It was also surprising to find out that all the King of Tepes and his eldest son desired was peace and quiet while Marius did not. Marius sounded just like Kokabiel, who believed that the Fallen Angels were the strongest.

"And so you decided to bring her here?" My father asked, glancing at Valerie, causing her to look down at the floor.

My uncle smiled. "There is no safer place for her than the Bael Castle. Plus after hearing of my nephew having a peerage consist mostly of blonde-haired beauties I figured she would fit right in."

My peerage did not consist of only blondes. Well, excluding Kuroka, my uncle was right about that.

It wasn't like I was going for an all blonde-beauty peerage though, it just happened. Not to mention that Ravel was also blonde.

Great, now everyone was going to start pointing that out, even Hyoudou most likely when he met my peerage.

"So you want her to join my son's peerage?"

"It's up to those two to decide if she joins his peerage or not."

That would mean that I would have two Longinus in my peerage, a considerable feat as Rias also had two Longinus with Hyoudou and Gasper.

Though unlike Rias, Regulus was a spirit of the Sacred Gear while Hyoudou was the possessor of the Boosted Gear Longinus and Gasper's wouldn't evolve into a Longinus until way later in the series.

So my popularity in the Underworld would probably rise when they learned that I had two Longinus in my peerage. That was good for me as it would bring me one step closer to hopefully getting a promotion to Ultimate-Class, something Sairaorg never achieved in the original timeline because he didn't possess any demonic power.

Marcus then turned his attention towards me. "Then I will leave my sister in your care, Prince Zeroth."

"Yeah."

Which meant that soon I would become the target of Rizevim and his Qlippoth faction of the Khaos Brigade. Rizevim would stop at nothing to accomplish his goal of reviving 666 and invading the other world beyond the Dimensional Gap. That meant that I had another reason to evolve and become stronger than my current self.

Rizevim was a Super Devil, one of the three Devils with powers and abilities that far exceeded the Original Maou, though he wasn't on the same level as Sirzechs and Ajuka. Hopefully it would be possible to surpass that level with my demonic power and Regulus Nemea.

"What about your brother?" My father asked. "Will he not try and recover her to continue his experiments?"

Marcus shook his head. "Marius will not know where to look for her. I covered my tracks well to prevent him from following me."

"Then let us hope that it remains that way," Zekram said. "For the sake of her own protection the only ones that will know of her existence will be those in this room."

That didn't mean that his allies wouldn't be able to find where she was. Still, at least without the power of the Holy Grail in their hands the only Evil Dragons that would be working alongside Rizevim and his faction would be Crom Cruach and Niðhöggr. The only one of those dragons that would be a problem would be Crom Cruach, the Strongest Evil Dragon who had managed to surpass the Heavenly Dragons in their prime.

My uncle smiled. "My lips are sealed."

My father and mother nodded their heads in agreement.

Marcus bowed his head. "I will inform my father that my sister has been safely hidden away."

"Then I shall take my leave. I have important matters of state that need to be dealt with." Zekram said and took his leave.

"Allow me to accompany you," my father said, following him out of the room with my mother trailing behind them.

"Come, let us leave these youngsters alone." My uncle led Marcus out and patted my shoulder as he passed me. "Good luck."

And just like that I was left alone with the Dhamphir.

Leave it to those guys to leave me to deal with their mess. They were basically leaving the future of the Underworld and world in my hands. They placed too many expectations on me.

"Looks like you and I will be together for awhile."

Valerie nodded her head in agreement. Not much of a talker was she? Then again we were two beings of different races and it was a wonder we were even standing in the same room together when there was still no peace between the mythological factions.

"Have you ever been to Japan before?"

Valerie shook her head.

Of course she hadn't, that was a stupid question to ask. She had been locked up in the castle most of her life alongside Gasper until now.

"You'll like it there. The people there are nice and easy to get along with. Just hope that you don't get any fans, they're the worst."

"Fans?" She tilted her head in confusion.

Well at least she can speak.

"People that look up to you and idolize you."

In the case of the girls at Kuoh Academy it was more like obsessed with than anything else. They acted like they had never seen a man before whenever they were around me.

At least the women that were not human didn't act like them.

"You're different from most of your kind. You don't show any signs of disgust when you look at me, why is that?" Valerie asked.

"Because I don't care if you are a Vampire, Fallen Angel, Grim Reaper, or human. To me you or just like me, a living being."

And that in my past life I had always been curious and interested in mythology and the supernatural creatures that inhabited them, never believing that I would get a chance to live among them, even if it is was in a different universe compared to my own.

"And you don't care that I have the Holy Grail?"

"Not at all."

Valerie narrowed her eyes at me. "Then what were they talking about earlier about me joining your peerage?"

"I won't force you if you don't want to. All those who joined my peerage came of their own free will."

I took out my remaining Evil Pieces and showed them to her.

"You will become a Devil if you accept, leaving your old life behind and serve me. My remaining pieces are a Knight, Pawn, and two Rooks. It will also make it easier for me to protect you from those who would wish to harm you as you would be a member of my family."

"Family?"

"Yeah, everyone who is a part of my peerage are my family. I won't forgive anyone who hurts them."

"So you will also help them if they need it as well, right?"

"That is right."

Valerie seemed to be deep in thought about something and I couldn't help but wonder if it had to do with Gasper. They were both childhood friends and she had helped Gasper escape when he no longer wished to be locked up in the castle. It wouldn't be any surprise to me if she wanted me to help her find her friend.

She wouldn't join my peerage for that reason, would she?

"Then if I joined your peerage would you help me find my friend? I know that it's a long shot, but I'm certain that he isn't dead."

If only she knew how close Gasper was, but if it got her to join my peerage then I would use that to my advantage.

"Are you sure? You will become a Devil and acknowledge me as your King. Knowing that, will you still join my peerage?"

Valerie seemed to hesitate for a moment, but looked determine to find her childhood friend.

If only I had someone like that to rely on in this world.

"I am."

"Then let us begin."

Though the Bishop piece would have suited Valerie more, at least with this piece it would be impossible for her to join Rias's peerage since she had used all of her Pawn pieces on Hyoudou.

Valerie accepted the purple colored evil piece and a bright purple glow lit up the room before devil wings appeared from Valerie's back.

"Welcome to my family, Valerie Tepes."

* * *

"Nice to meet you. My name is Valerie Tepes and I am Zeroth-sama's new Pawn." She bowed like a true princess in front of my peerage and fiancé. "I will be in your care for now on."

As soon as Valerie had joined my peerage I decided to introduce her to the rest of the group along with Ravel. Luckily my Mutation Pawn Piece was more than enough to turn Valerie and her Longinus into my servant. Now I just needed to keep her in my sights and prevent Rizevim or any member of the Khaos Brigade from getting their hands on her Sacred Gear.

At least this way hopefully the threat of Trihexa's awakening would be prevented unless Rizevim and his group managed to find a different way to awaken the beast.

Though the latter was highly unlikely as Rizevim would need the Holy Grail to unseal Trihexa as the only Holy Relic he would have would be the Holy Cross, wielded by Walburga, the leader of the Hexennacht faction. Well hopefully Rizevim wouldn't be able to find Valerie's location anytime soon because I wouldn't be able to defeat him in my current state without Regulus's help.

All that mattered now was surpassing the power of a Super Devil without the use of Regulus Nemea.

Unlike with Hyoudou and Vali, it was possible for me because I didn't rely on the power of my Sacred Gear unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Why did you turn her into your servant?" Kuisha asked.

"What is so special about her?" Ravel wondered.

"She is the daughter of the 4th King of Tepes and the possessor of the Longinus, Sephiroth Graal."

It was amusing to see their reactions and made me wish that I had a camera to take a picture of them.

"A-A Longinus?"

"That is right. She is now under the protection of the Great King faction. Only those in this room and the members of my family know of her existence."

The members of my peerage understood right away what that meant, as they also had to keep the presence of Regulus a secret from those they knew.

That was why I also needed to get stronger on my own, because I couldn't rely on Regulus when Kokabiel, Loki, and the Hero Faction appeared until after my Rating Game with Rias and Hyoudou.

Which meant that Touki and the power of destruction were my only options because of Rizevim's Sacred Gear Canceller ability.

Just as Ravel said, I needed to figure out a method to synch my two powers together. Maybe it would be possible to create a form similar to that of the Dual-Element Dragon Mode from Fairy Tail.

If it were possible for Vali to synch the power of the Hakuryuukou and his Lucifer ability than it should be possible for me as well only it was with my own abilities and not that of a Sacred Gear's.

Asia was the first to come up to Valerie and greet her. "My name is Asia Argento and I am Zeroth-san's Bishop. I hope that we can become friends."

Leave it to Asia to treat a newcomer with kindness.

Valerie smiled. "I hope that we can get along as well."

"Of course we will. You are now part of the family after all," Jeanne said. "I am a Jeanne by the way, Zero-sama's Knight."

"And I am Kuroka, Zeroth's Bishop-nya."

"I am Kuisha Abaddon, Zeroth-sama's Queen."

"And I am Ravel Phenex, Zeroth-sama's fiancé."

Looks like there was no need to worry about Valerie fitting in with the group.

"Then I will leave you with them. Kuisha will show you to your room if you need to know where to go. I have other matters to attend to."

"Y-Yes!"

And with that I took my leave, leaving my peerage with Valerie to get to know each other.

It was almost time for Rias's Rating Game with Riser Phenex. Though I didn't feel like watching it, it was expected of me to watch it as a member of the Great King faction.

I didn't really care about it, but the future of pure Devils was on the line with this game and many would be watching it.

Plus it couldn't hurt to see Rias's peerage in action and form counter-measures against them for our Rating Game as Sona would do for her Rating Game against Rias.

* * *

The sound of my door creaking open woke me up from my sleep. Standing in the doorway was the beautiful blonde-haired Valerie.

"Can't sleep?"

Valerie shook her head. "The spirits keep me awake."

The spirits? Oh right, the Sephiroth Graal gave her the ability to make contact with the principal of life, forcefully telling the possessor about how the life and soul was made. If it were me in her shoes, I probably would have gone insane from the Sacred Gear, though it was highly likely that the past possessors had that problem.

"You can have my spot on the bed, I'll take the floor."

"Spot?"

Valerie looked confused before noticing that Asia was sound asleep on the bed next to me.

"She isn't used to this kind of luxury, being from the Church and all that, so she sleeps with me to feel more comfortable here."

I had the same problem when my past memories returned, not being used at all to the royal-sized bed compared to my queen-size one. Not to mention living in a castle as well.

"You really are nothing like the rest of your kind."

"I get that a lot."

Slipping out of the bed, I allowed Valerie to climb in and rest beside Asia while I laid against the side of the bed.

"Don't worry about Asia, she won't wake up unless we start doing ecchi-things."

"Ecchi?"

"Perverted stuff. You really don't know a whole lot of the outside world, do you?"

"Not really, some of what I do know I read from books from the library of the castle."

My childhood seemed a whole lot better when compared to Valerie's at that moment. Though my father really never showed any love to me, at least I had the love and support of my mother and was given freedom throughout the castle, despite being brought up as the next Great King of Bael. Life as a High-Class sure could be tough when compared to my past life.

At least I didn't have the weight of the world on my shoulders back then.

"Then I'll make certain that you learn a lot of new things when you come to Japan with us when we return to the human world."

"I will be going to Japan with you?"

"Yeah. If I remember correctly my cousin also has a Dhamphir as her servant."

That ought to get her hopes up and get her to look forward to going to Japan. Though unlike Valerie, I knew that Rias's servant was Gasper Vladi, her childhood friend.

Of course she didn't need to know that I knew that. She could use the surprise when we returned to the human world.

"Could it be Gasper?" Valerie wondered, with a delighted tone.

"It's possible. I never met her servant because she had to seal them because their power was too great to control when they moved to the human world."

Not like there were that many Dhamphirs in the DxD world to begin with who were named and had an important role in the series.

"Do you at least know where your cousin met this Dhamphir?"

"No. I wasn't very close with Rias until after I joined Kuoh Academy."

Besides, not like it mattered anyway since I already knew who all the members of Rias's peerage would be because of my knowledge of the light novels, though it would seem that her future servants after Hyoudou would be different than the original timeline.

It wasn't my problem though because they would most likely join Hyoudou's peerage anyways when he became a High-Class Devil and received his own set of Evil Pieces.

That was a problem though for another time because it would be at least a year until the Azazel Cup.

At least with Rias's upcoming Rating Game with Riser I would be able to see if they were any different with Raynare's addition to the group instead of Asia.

"Why weren't you two close?" Valerie asked.

"Because my family despised her clan for strongly inheriting our ability and that I didn't meet her until coming to the human world."

Not to mention constantly being compared to her and Sirzechs whenever my father got the chance.

"You are family though."

"That didn't matter to my father."

Of course after regaining my memories it didn't matter to me what my father thought. He was just a means to an end until I became the next Great King.

"Is that the reason you are constantly training? I overheard about it from the others."

"No. I just want to become strongest, that is all."

Because I was weak in my previous life and had no dreams or ambitions back then. Here though it was possible to become something greater in a world filled with supernatural creatures and beings.

I wasn't going to stop until I reached the end of that road. Otherwise what was the point if I didn't use my second chance at life to the fullest?

Helping Rias and her peerage would just slow me down, though I would help them in certain circumstances, it would all be for my benefit, not theirs.

"That sounds lonely," Valerie muttered. "Good night, Zeroth-san."

"Good night, Valerie."

Once she was sound asleep, I balled my hand into a fist and imbued it with my power of destruction.

To Valerie it might have sounded like a lonely road, but becoming the strongest was my goal in this new world, just as Hyoudou's was to become a Harem King.

Having a harem on the side along the way was just a bonus for me.

After all, only a fool would let an opportunity to have a harem slip out of their grasp because it was a once in a lifetime dream and would never have been possible in my old world.

* * *

"It has been a while, Zeroth-kun."

"Indeed it has, Sirzechs-sama."

It was the day of the Rating Game between Rias Gremory and Riser Phenex, and my father had managed to get my aunt to allow us to watch it with them. Of course the only ones who were allowed to attend to watch the match were the members of both households, but because of my recent engagement to Ravel we were also allowed to join them.

"This should be an interesting match," my father chuckled, taking his seat by my mother and brother.

If only they knew how easily Riser would be able to crush Rias in this Rating Game.

In their current state, Rias's peerage wouldn't stand a chance against Riser's, which meant that this game was more or less entertainment for the Bael, Gremory, and Phenex Clans.

However, given time and training, Rias's peerage would be able to completely destroy Riser's group in the near future, but that was not meant to be for this game.

At the moment though, Rias was at a complete disadvantage, even with the extra fighter in Raynare, as before Asia only served as support.

"This will be an easy match for Riser," Ruval sighed, voicing my thoughts.

"It can't be helped since Rias would never have agreed to marry Riser in the first place," Zeoticus said.

"It's beginning," Sirzechs noted, as Rias and her peerage was transported to the battlefield that resembled Kuoh Academy.

It was like watching the first season of High School DxD all over again as Rias and her peerage formed a strategy against Riser. There were only two ways though they would able to defeat Riser: one was to beat him down with incredible power and the other one is to keep on taking him down until his mind crushes and the second one was to completely crush his mind.

It would be impossible for them to accomplish though as Riser had a full peerage.

Grayfia's voice then echoed throughout the battlefield. [Hello everyone. I am Grayfia, a maid from the House of Gremory and today I will be the arbiter of the Rating match between the House of Gremory and the House of Phoenix. In the name of my Master, Sirzechs Lucifer, I will be keeping my eye on this match. By using both Rias-sama and Riser-sama's opinion, we created this battlefield, which is a replica of the school, Kuoh academy, which Rias-sama attends to in the human world.]

Just hurry up and get this match over with.

[The location where both teams were transported will be their "base". Rias-sama's "base" would be the Occult Research Cub's clubroom located in the old school building. Riser-sama's "base" would be the Student Council's room located in the new building. For the [Pawns] to use "promotion", please head to the enemy's base to do it.]

Just as Ruval said, this was going to be an easy match for Riser.

[Now it's the time for the commencement of the battle. Also, this match will continue till dawn in the human's time. So, Game starts now.]

And with that the Rating Game between Rias and Riser began.

Sirzechs seemed to notice my lack of interest in the game as Rias sent Hyoudou and Shirone to the gym. Waiting for them would be three of Riser's Pawns and a Rook.

"You don't have any faith that Rias can win, do you, Zeroth?" Sirzechs asked.

"Not really. She is still inexperienced while Riser already has experience with Rating Games. This match was decided before it even began."

"True, but Rias still believes that she can win, even if it is just a glimmer of hope."

"If you say so."

True, Rias would be able to take down almost all of Riser's servants, but none of that would matter if she were unable to take down the King. In the end it would be because of Rias's weakness that they lost, surrendering to Riser after all the hard work her servants put in.

"How vulgar."

"Interesting."

It would seem that Hyoudou revealed his Dress Break move, halting the movements of his opponents before leaving the gym along with Shirone.

"As expected of Rias," Sirzechs noted, as Akeno completely destroyed the gym with her lightning.

[Riser Phenex-sama's three [Pawns] and one [Rook] retires!] Grayfia called out.

They let their guards down as an explosion came soon after.

[Rias Gremory-sama's [Rook] retries.]

It would seem that Shirone was still not on the same level as Kuroka otherwise she would have been able to avoid that attack just now. That meant that Rias now had four servants now while Riser still had eleven.

Now what are you going to do, Rias?

"The Priestess of Thunder and the Bomb Queen," Lord Phenex noted as the two Queens began to clash in the air.

"Well, it will be interesting to see how she fares against Riser's Queen," my father added.

If it followed the original timeline then Akeno would lose because of Yubelluna using one of their Phoenix Tears. However if she had access to her Holy Lightning then she would able to easily defeat her foe.

While the two Queens engaged in the sky, Hyoudou and Kiba arrived near Riser's base to fight the remaining members of his peerage. To my surprise though, Raynare was nowhere to be seen.

What was Rias up to?

Don't tell me she planned to keep Raynare as her guard when she infiltrated Riser's base instead of having Asia with her? That would be a waste of her fighting force.

[Riser Phenex-sama's [Rook] retires.]

Another one of Riser's servants appeared to have fallen, but in his current state it was only a matter of time before Hyoudou collapsed from exhaustion.

It would seem we were finally entering the climax as Hyoudou and Kiba managed to take down Riser's remaining servants.

[Riser Phenex-sama's two [Pawns], two [Knights], and two [Bishops], retires.]

Yet what came next was unexpected even for me.

[Riser Phenex-sama's [Queen] and Rias Gremory-sama's [Queen] and [Knight], retires.]

So that was Rias's plan. To have Akeno wear Yubelluna down before having Raynare come in to finish her off, but it would seem that Riser's Queen managed to take both of them down with her.

"What do you think now, Zeroth?" Sirzechs asked while the others in the room also seemed to be surprised by the announcement.

Even I was not expecting Rias to be able to take down Riser's Queen after all it was because of her in the original timeline that she managed to take down most of Rias's servants.

"It's still too early to say," was my only response to Sirzechs.

"Well this was certainly an unexpected turn of events," Zeoticus said.

"Indeed. It would seem that we underestimated Rias's chance to win." Lord Phenex added.

Yet even with Kiba with them this time they were all low on stamina. Their combined powers would not be enough to defeat Riser. All it would take was one more attack and they would be finished.

This was a checkmate for Rias no matter how hard she struggled to defeat Riser, she would still lose in the end.

"This match is over."

[Rias Gremory-sama's [Knight], retires.]

As expected, Kiba couldn't even endure one attack from Riser when he reached the rooftop with Hyoudou to support Rias. And without Asia's Twilight Healing, they were unable to heal their injuries sustained during the battle.

"Well at least she gave it her all," Lord Phenex said, standing up while on the screen Hyoudou struggled to stand back up to fight against Riser.

"We will proceed with the ceremony as planned," Lady Phenex added.

Sirzechs seemed to have a troubled expression on his face as Rias surrendered to Riser.

[Rias Gremory-sama has surrendered. The winner is Riser Phenex-sama.]

This was the outcome decided by fate after all, but knowing Sirzechs he would give Hyoudou another chance to free Rias from her engagement to Riser.

Unfortunately for me though that meant that I would have to attend the ceremony as a High-Class Devil.

Well at least it wasn't going to be a boring one.

* * *

 **Next chapter will the final one of the Riser arc before we move on to the Kokabiel arc. Also, just letting you guys all know that the plot bunnies hit me again and after reading this one Fairy Tail story I decided to make another self-insert story for that one as a Male-SI Lucy. Or maybe a different SI story entirely, not sure yet. It won't be happening for a while though as I plan to keep going with this one until I lose steam or decide to take a break from this one. I learned from my mistakes last time that's impossible for me to keep up with multiple stories at once.  
**

 **As for those of you wondering about the supremacy thing it happens way later in the light novels after Issei becomes a High-Class Devil. Has something to do with her tactical skills I think, not sure. Probably will have to re-read some parts to figure out, but don't feel like doing at the moment.  
**

 **Also, I didn't originally intend to include Rias's Rating Game in this chapter, but decided to anyways, because usually most of the time the OC or SI is participating in it against Riser, so I decided to have my SI spectate it instead.**

 **Anyways that's it from me, see you all next time.**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER: The Dragon and the Phoenix  
**


	10. The Dragon and the Phoenix

Social events were definitely not my cup of tea, especially when it came to wearing fancy clothes.

Not to mention the ties, but since it was more or less a formal occasion I decided to wear one of the fancy-looking attires with the fur-coat collar that went around my shoulders and neck. Might as well go all out for this occasion even though it would be ruined anyways by Hyoudou's appearance and breaking off Rias's engagement to Riser.

Hyoudou was on his own with defeating Riser.

It was too much of a hassle to help out Hyoudou anyways, going to the human world and then back to the underworld, so I decided to let fate or whatever decide if Hyoudou would be able to defeat Riser. Though since Raynare was with him there was a chance that she would be able to provide him the cross and holy water he needed, which meant there was no need for me to interfere.

Plus just like Sona, as a High-Class Devil it wasn't my place to interfere with Rias's problem. Solving her problem was up to her and her servants.

Well, Hyoudou would be able to beat Riser somehow on his own if not well then Rias was screwed with Riser for the rest of her life.

However considering how much changes to the original timeline my actions and presence have caused there was no doubt in my mind that the story I knew from here on out was changed forever.

At least this would be the shortest ceremony ever.

"Zeroth, are you ready?"

"Yeah."

Stepping out of the room, I was greeted by my mother and Magdaran, both wearing noble attires suitable for the occasion. If only they knew that this ceremony was going to be crashed by the Sekiryuutei.

Of course it would all be thanks to Sirzechs, who no doubt had no desire to see his sister wed to someone like Riser. It wasn't like Hyoudou was a better choice for Rias either.

My mother smiled when she nodded in approval of my attire. "You look perfect for this evening. Ravel will no doubt be pleased as well."

"Sure."

It wasn't like she wasn't already smitten with me anyways though she tended to act like a tsundere whenever we got too close. At least some things about this world were still the same.

Well the one good thing that came out of our engagement was that Ravel wouldn't be wasted on the likes of someone like Hyoudou.

Pure Devils were already low as is after the previous wars and though I could care less about them it was my duty as the next Great King to keep the line of the House of Bael pure.

"Now remember, you will be escorting Ravel during the procession when we arrive at the Gremory castle." My mother reminded me.

"I know."

That would mean that almost all of the nobles would have their eyes on me when we arrived when the herald announced our names.

Being at the center of attention was never my thing, but I would have to get over that fear for the future so might as well start getting used to it now.

My mother frowned. "What is with that face? Show some pride, Zeroth. You are a Bael and the next Great King."

"Sorry. I just have a lot of things on my mind right now."

After all it was difficult to figure out what events from the original timeline were changed now due to my actions and presence. Hopefully at least Kokabiel would still attack Kuoh Academy, which would cause the Three Factions to form an alliance.

Not to mention that Kokabiel was probably one of the few foes that I could go all out against and test my limits and abilities.

"Well push them aside for now. Your focus should be on your betrothed while we are there not on training. You'll have plenty of time to do that when you return to the human world."

"Yeah."

It was still weird at times to be scolded by a woman who wasn't actually my mother, but Zeroth Bael's mother. Still, the only times she really scolded me was whenever my mind was focused on training.

At least she didn't have to endure the harsh life she had when Sairaorg was born.

Waiting for us when we arrived downstairs were the members of my peerage and Magdaran's, along with Ravel. Ravel blushed when she saw how regal looking I was.

Kuisha and Sectaas then stepped forward and bowed their heads.

"The magic-circle has been prepared. Lord Bael has gone on ahead to discuss some matters with Lord Phenex."

Probably about my wedding ceremony with Ravel. They were taking things too fast, but that was to be expected of High-Class Devils, especially when it came to marriages between Pure Devils.

They were no doubt eager to have some Pure Devil grandchildren.

At least my partner was someone tolerable unlike Riser and more reliable.

"Then we shouldn't keep them waiting." My mother said, putting on her mask of the Great Queen of Bael.

I then offered my hand to Ravel as we began to make our way to the magic-circle.

"My lady."

"T-Thank you, Zeroth-sama."

Ravel accepted it and allowed me to escort her.

The other members of my peerage were no doubt jealous of my closeness with Ravel, but they would have to put up with it until the ceremony was over.

We all then stepped onto the magic-circle that had the symbol of House of Bael on it.

The light then covered us, transporting us to where the ceremony was being held.

* * *

"Zeroth Bael of the House of the Great King and his betrothed, Ravel Phenex of the House of Marquis!" The herald called out our names as we entered the great hall.

It was nerve wrecking for me to see all of the High-Class Devils turn their gazes at us; most of their faces were unknown to me though. We were the future of the Pure Devils and all of the older Devils knew that, while some no doubt wished that their daughters were betrothed to me instead.

Hurry up and crash the party already, Hyoudou.

Luckily for me though the main focus of tonight was on Riser Phenex and Rias, but that didn't mean that I didn't hear them whispering about me.

"That is him, the Strongest Youth."

"I've heard that he continues to train with his body even though he has such great potential with his demonic power."

Ignore them man, they're just a bunch of nobodies not relative to the plot.

"Do they bother you, Zeroth-sama?" Ravel whispered as we trailed behind my mother and Lord Phenex.

"Not really."

"You're lying."

"Alright fine, maybe a little."

Leave it to Ravel to be able to read my mind. Thankfully she couldn't read that I used to be a human before taking over Zeroth Bael's body and mind.

Ravel smiled. "You should be more honest with yourself, Zeroth-sama."

"If you say so."

Glancing about the great hall my eyes soon fell upon my peerage hanging out with Rias and Sona's servants. Though judging from their expressions it was easy to tell that they were not at all satisfied with the result of their Rating Game against Riser.

To my surprise though I did not see Raynare with them, which most likely meant that she was with Hyoudou, taking care of his injuries.

That would no doubt be awkward for them, considering that Raynare had posed as Hyoudou's girlfriend and had killed him after they date was over.

"Still, my brother is lucky that he was able to win his bride in a Rating Game, though the match was already decided before it began." Ravel smiled.

"Yeah."

Not for long though if we are still following the same original timeline. And if Riser lost he would go into a slump before reforming his ways.

Ravel frowned at my response. "Do you not agree with your cousin's loss?"

"Not really. The match would have been more entertaining though if Rias had at least a chance to defeat him."

"So this is why you had to return to the underworld."

A familiar voice interrupted before Ravel could respond.

Approaching us was Sona and her Queen, Tsubaki, both wearing high-class dresses that exposed little of their skin, much to my disappointment.

"Yeah, sorry for not letting you know."

Sona chose to ignore me and curtsied to Ravel. Damn, talk about a cold response.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Sona Sitri, the next Head of the Sitri Clan."

"It's nice to meet you as well, I am Ravel Phenex, the youngest daughter of the Phenex Clan."

"She will be returning to the human world with me and will be entering Kuoh Academy as a second-year student."

"Is that so?"

"Y-Yes, I will be in your care."

"Then I shall take my leave. I would like to give my regards to Rias's group."

I bowed before taking my leave, leaving Ravel in the company of Sona and her Queen.

It had been a while since I last spoke with Rias's peerage, though it had been mainly because of my desire to interact with them as little as possible. The only one though from Rias's peerage who I was truly interested in though was Akeno, because of her seductiveness and that it would be a waste if she fell for Hyoudou.

That and because well I preferred her over Rias anyways.

"That was a fine match you all had. You should be proud of yourselves." I greeted them with a smile.

"Thank you, Zeroth-san," Kiba said.

"We could have done better," Shirone muttered, sucking on a sweet.

"Well considering how you all managed to take out all of Riser's servants is a feat by itself considering that you are still beginners. Especially you, Akeno, I was surprised when you managed to take down his Queen along with Rias's Knight."

"Ara, ara, thank you for the praise," Akeno smiled, though it was hard to tell if it was real or not.

If only she knew that if she had used her Holy Lightning she would have been able to easily take down Riser's Queen.

"Still, it is a shame that Rias's first Rating Game was her loss."

"I don't think that it's over yet." Kiba said.

"Not yet," Shirone agreed.

Before I could respond, flames erupted from the center of the hall as Riser Phenex appeared through a magic-circle in a stylish suit exposing his chest.

"Noble Devils of the underworld! The Phenex Family is honored by your attendance tonight!" Riser exclaimed. "We invited you all here to share the moment in which I, Riser Phenex and the heiress of the Gremory Clan, Rias Gremory, formally announce our intent to marry. Now then, let me introduce my bride, Rias Gremory!"

He sure does love to talk.

The magic-circle with the Gremory symbol then appeared beside Riser Phenex as Rias emerged from it, with her crimson-hair tied up, wearing a red dress.

Damn she sure did look ravishing. Hyoudou was lucky to have a woman like her fall in love with a pervert like him.

Now then, when are you going to show up, Hyoudou?

As if right on cue the entrance doors to the great hall were flung open as a familiar pervert entered the hall.

"Buchou!"

The cry echoed throughout the hall, causing many of the High-Class Devils to turn their attention to the intruder.

"To all the High-class Devils here! And Buchou's brother, Maou-sama! My name is Hyoudou Issei from Kuoh Academy! I have arrived to take back Buchou, Rias Gremory-sama!"

It was amusing to watch the other High-Class Devils express surprised and shocked expressions, whispering to one another.

And without a care in the world, Hyoudou began to walk over to Rias and Riser.

At least all of this was the same as the light novels.

One of the guards then approached Hyoudou. "Hey, you! Do you know where this-!"

But he was interrupted as Kiba, Shirone, and Akeno intervened, stopping the guards in their tracks.

Hyoudou then continued on his path and marched right up in front of Riser.

"Buchou, Rias Gremory-sama's virginity belongs to me!"

There it was.

I couldn't help but chuckle at Riser's expression. It was even better seeing it in person then on a screen.

"What's the meaning of this, Riser?"

"Hey, Lady Rias. What's the meaning of this?"

Relatives from both sides were making unsettled expressions and panicking while I was the only one enjoying the moment.

Now this is what you called crashing a wedding, though it was more or less an engagement ceremony before the wedding.

"It's an event that I organized."

It was at that moment that Sirzechs appeared, the Strongest Devil of the Underworld.

"Oni-sama," Rias muttered.

"I wanted to see the power of the Dragon, so I asked Grayfia to provide a method of transportation here for the boy."

"S-Sirzechs-sama!? You can't do something irresponsible like this!" One of their relatives panicked.

"It should be fine. The Rating Game from last time was very entertaining, but my little sister was at a disadvantage who had no game experience to face off against Riser-kun who is a prodigy from the House of Phenex."

"So Sirzechs-sama, you are saying that the last game wasn't fair?"

"No, no, not at all. If a Maou such as myself says such thing, then I would be making the old nobles look bad. The connection between the High-class Devils is important after all."

"Then, Sirzechs. What do you want to do about it?" Zeoticus asked.

"Father. I want to make my cute little sister's engagement party into a flashy one. Dragon versus Phoenix. Don't you think it's the ultimate event? To stir up the party by having a battle between legendary creatures. There aren't any kinds of entertainment which can surpass this."

Everyone in the hall grew silent after hearing Sirzechs's words. He then looked at Hyoudou.

"Dragon user-kun. You have our permission. Riser, can you show your power once more right in front of Rias and I?"

Riser made a fearless smile. "Very well. There is no way I can decline if Sirzechs-sama asks me. This Riser will show his last performance before getting married!"

"Dragon user-kun, what prize do you want when you win the match?" Sirzechs then asked Hyoudou.

"Sirzechs-sama!?"

"What are you saying!?"

The other members of the Gremory Clan started criticizing Sirzechs's offer.

"He's a Devil, so we need to give him something fitting for it since we are asking him to do something for us. Now then. I can give you anything. A peerage? Or the most beautiful woman?"

"I ask you to give me Rias Gremory-sama back." Was Hyoudou's response.

Sirzechs smiled. "Very well. If you win, you may take Rias with you."

Hyoudou then bowed his head. "Thank you very much."

Time to see if Hyoudou's early head start at training would allow him to last longer in his Balance Breaker form.

Hopefully this battle would be a lot more interesting then before.

* * *

The center of the hall was cleared in a hurry.

The Devils in the hall were standing around the space, watching with keen eyes. My peerage and the other members of my family stood on the Gremory side, with Rias and Sirzechs.

On the other side of the hall was the House of Phenex, their relatives and servants while Ravel stood by my side.

At the center of the hall standing there was Hyoudou with his Boosted Gear activated and Riser with a confident look on his face.

Time to see how much of a difference this battle was going to be compared to the original timeline.

"Please start!" The arbitrator of the match cried out.

Riser then ignited his fire wings and then pointed at Hyoudou's gauntlet. "Your ability is already cracked. A Sacred Gear that keeps on doubling the power of the user, the Boosted Gear. Also it seems like you gained a new ability that can transfer the multiplied power into an object or your allies."

Hyoudou then looked over at Rias and grinned. "Buchou, I will finish this in twenty seconds."

Twenty? Well it would seem that Riser was really screwed this time.

"Ise?" Rias said, with a doubtful look on her face.

"What is that guy thinking? As if he would be able to defeat my brother." Ravel muttered.

"You sure talk big for saying that you will finish this in 20 seconds. Then I will finish you off in 10 no 5 seconds. It won't be like last time, Rias's Pawn!" Riser exclaimed.

"Buchou! Please allow me to use "Promotion" here!" Hyoudou cried out. "Promotion, Queen!"

Time to see what Hyoudou had in store for Riser.

"Buchou! I don't have talent for swords like Kiba! I'm not a genius like Akeno-san at using demonic-power! I don't have a crazy strength like Shirone-chan, nor do I have any combat skills like Raynare! Even still, I will become the "Strongest Pawn"! For you, I will even beat God! With this Boosted Gear! My only weapon! I will make sure that I will protect you!"

Hyoudou then raised his gauntlet into the air.

"Shiiiiiine! Over Boost!"

[Welsh Dragon over booster!]

The jewel in the gauntlet then released a red light that shined throughout the entire hall and a deep crimson aura covered Hyoudou.

After the light died down, Hyoudou's body was equipped with the Boosted Gear Scale Mail armor.

Riser was shocked when he saw Hyoudou's appearance. "An armor!? You made the power of Sekiryuutei shape into a physical form!?"

"This is the power of the Emperor of Dragons! The Balance Breaker, [Boosted Gear Scale-mail]! —If you want to stop me, go and ask Maou-sama! After all, it seems like this is the "The Hated Forbidden Technique"!"

Look at Hyoudou, wasting his time explaining things when he should just focus on completely destroying Riser.

[XX]

The countdown then began and Hyoudou closed the distance between him and Riser, creating a mass of demonic power between his hands and shooting it at Riser.

The demonic power released from Hyoudou grew bigger as it flew towards Riser.

"It's enormous!" Riser flew out of the way, evading the attack.

[XIX]

Hyoudou then blasted to where he believed Riser would fly to, the propellers on his back releasing an explosive amount of demonic power.

Just like in canon though, Hyoudou crashed into a wall, no doubt because he still had trouble controlling his armor.

[XVIII]

Hyoudou then got back up, shaking the rubble off himself while Riser became more vigilant.

Riser's body then got covered in a rainbow color aura to the point where even I could feel his demonic power from here.

"Shitty Sekiryuutei brat! Sorry but I won't hold back! I don't want to admit it, but right now you are a monster! In front of your master, Rias, perish!"

A giant pair of wings of fire appears on Riser's back who was howling until a whirlwind of flames surrounded him while engulfing the hall with intense fire.

All around me the other Devils in the hall started to put up barriers in front of themselves to protect themselves from the flames, including me.

"Fire bird and Fenghuang! The hell fire of our clan that was praised as being that of a Phoenix! Taste it with your own body and turn into ashes!"

Riser who was now covered in flames rushed at Hyoudou, his silhouette resembling that of a gigantic fire bird.

"There's no way that I will perish from a crappy fire like yours!"

Hyoudou propelled himself at Riser, shouting and slamming his fist against Riser's face while his own fist hit Hyoudou's as well. The impact of their punches caused the entire hall to shake while at the center of the hall, Hyoudou and Riser began exchanging punches.

Why wasn't he using the cross yet?

"Are you scared!? Are you afraid of me!? Of course! You are merely a trash if you didn't have a Boosted Gear! If you didn't have that armor, then you would have perished before my fist reached you! That's right! If you take that gauntlet off, then you have no value!" Riser shouted amongst their blows.

[XVII]

It was at that moment though that Hyoudou pulled something out of his pocket and I knew at once what it was as he did a cross-counter with Riser, causing him to bend back.

"That won't work on-" Riser coughed up blood, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw what Hyoudou was holding. "A cross!? You have a cross!?"

All around me the Devils screamed in fear when they saw it while I did my best to not show any fear at it.

[XVI]

"I punched you while increasing the effect of the cross with my Sacred Gear. A holy attack that has increased drastically can even be used against High-class Devils. Even if you are the immortal bird Phoenix, you won't be able to heal this attack that easily, right?" Hyoudou replied.

"Absurd! Crosses bring intense suffering to Devils! Even if you wear a Dragon's armor, touching it is absolutely foolish-" Riser then stopped when he realized it. "Did you give your left arm to the Dragon residing in the gauntlet? So that's the reason for your insane powers!"

"Yeah, that's right. I gave my left arm in order to use this power for a temporary period. My left arm is the arm of an actual Dragon. That's why a cross doesn't work on me."

"If you do that, then your left arm won't return to normal! Do you know that!?"

"What about it?"

[XV]

Stop talking and finish him off already, Hyoudou.

"Buchou will come back just with one arm of someone like me, you know? It's a pretty cheap deal, don't you think?"

Riser's eyes widened after hearing that. "You are crazy. So that's why you can hit punches without any hesitation. You are scary. I have become scared of you for real, for the first time. And for that!" Riser's flames then grew even bigger. "I'm going to beat you with everything I have!"

[XIV]

Hyoudou then put all of his power into the cross and exchanged blows with Riser.

I was not at all surprised this time when the armor did not disappear from Hyoudou and Riser sustained even more damage from the cross.

"Now then, time to extinguish those flames of yours!"

Hyoudou took out another object from his pocket and opened the lid, flinging some of the holy water at Riser.

"Cra-"

"Boosted Gear Gift!"

[Transfer!]

The holy water then began to vaporize Riser's flames, causing his wings of flames to diminish.

[XIII]

Riser then began to writhe in pain while Hyoudou pointed his cross at Riser, sprinkling some holy water onto it.

"Raynare told me this. That Devils are weak against the cross and the holy water. So increasing the ability of both of them at the same time would give enormous damage to Devils, right?"

Riser tried to take step back while making a scared face.

"Kiba told me this. To widen my line of sight and look towards the enemy and its surroundings."

[Transfer!]

"Akeno-san told me this. To gather the demonic-power that flows throughout your whole body. To concentrate and feel the wave of the demonic-power. Yeah, even an idiot like me can feel it, Akeno-san."

[XII]

"Shirone-chan told me this. When you hit someone, aim at the middle of the body and nail it deep into their body accurately!"

While Hyoudou aimed his fist at Riser, he began to panic.

"H-Hold on! Do you even know what you are doing!? This engagement is important and necessary for the future of Devils! It's not something a Devil brat like you can butt into!"

"I don't know anything complicated. But there's something I remember vaguely when I lost against you and became unconscious. Buchou was crying. She was crying! And she was also crying before! That reason is enough for me to beat the shit out of you—!"

Combined with the effects of the cross and holy water, Hyoudou slammed his fist directly into Riser's stomach.

Riser took a few steps back after the impact, coughing up blood. "For me to lose like this-"

He then fell onto the ground, unconscious.

It would seem that his head-start at training helped Hyoudou win while lasting longer in his Balance Breaker form.

"Brother!" Ravel cried out, but I stopped her from rushing over to him.

"Leave him alone."

Hyoudou then made his way over to where Rias and her father were and after exchanging some words, took out a leaflet, which glowed and a four-legged beast with wings emerged from it.

"Griffon," I muttered.

Once Hyoudou and Rias left, the crowd soon began to disperse while Riser was taken out of the hall.

And just like that the ceremony came to an end.

* * *

"Well then, I suppose I will see you all during summer break."

Kuisha and the others had already boarded the train, leaving me with Ravel, my mother, and Magdaran.

We were all at the train station that belonged to the Bael Clan, which would take us all back to the human world. After Hyoudou had crashed the ceremony the engagement between the House of Gremory and the House of Phenex was cancelled. Though from what I learned from Ravel, her family did not at all seem to mind as it gave a good lesson to Riser as he had finally experienced his first loss. Not like I didn't know that already.

After that, Riser had gone into a slump, but that wasn't my problem even though Ravel was a bit down because of her brother's loss.

"Remember, this will be Ravel's first time in the human world so don't forget to help her out if she needs it," my mother said.

"I know."

Asia and Jeanne would be able to help Ravel get used to the human world since they would all be in the same class together.

"You as well Ravel. If you need help with anything, Zeroth will be there to answer any of your questions."

"Yes!"

"We can take care of ourselves, mother." I sighed, wishing that we could be back in the human world already.

"I know that you are thinking about training, Zeroth," my mother scolded.

"Whatever."

I needed to train anyways to prepare for Kokabiel's attack on Kuoh. He was a Cadre of the Fallen Angels and unlike Hyoudou with his Boosted Gear, I couldn't rely on Regulus for this time because he had to remain in the underworld.

The only powers that I would have on me would be my power of destruction and Touki. It was time that I began training to acquire my true form.

My brother was the only one who seemed down about us leaving so I reached over and ruffled his hair.

"Don't worry, we'll be back soon. Until then you'll have your peerage and mother to keep you company."

"I wish that I could go to the human world as well," Magdaran muttered.

"When you're older."

Besides, my father would probably never allow it because he would not want both his sons to be in the human world. Unfortunately for Magdaran, that meant putting up with the other High-Class Devils at the prestigious school in the underworld.

At least the only annoying ones in the human world that I had to deal with were my fan girls.

"Until we see each other again, take care of yourself, brother."

I ruffled his hair one last time before hugging my mother and then boarded the train with Ravel.

The train soon departed after that, leaving the underworld for the human world.

Waiting for us when we entered were my peerage as we all settled down for the journey ahead.

Valerie seemed to be amazed at the sights she was seeing as we passed through the Bael territory. "This entire area belongs to your family?" She asked me.

"Yeah. Out all of the Devil Clans of the 72 Pillars we possess the largest territory in the underworld."

One of the benefits of being the highest-ranked clan in the 72 Pillars.

"By the way, when do you think that I will be able to meet your cousin's Bishop?"

"Not anytime soon. The higher-ups deemed that Rias was not ready to control her Bishop's power so she can not unseal them until she is ready."

Which would be after Kokabiel was dealt with; when Kiba managed to achieve his Holy Demonic Sword Balance Breaker.

"I see," Valerie said, looking down.

"Don't worry. In the mean time you will be able to enjoy the sights of Japan. I did promise you that after all."

"Yeah."

It was going to be difficult to get her to open up, but hopefully with the help of the others she would be able to show emotions again. At least Marius wasn't able to break her too much before her older brother decided to send her away.

In the mean time with the Riser incident behind us I could focus on obtaining my true power.

After all, Kokabiel was an opponent I could go all out on and I planned to do just that when he attacked.

If it was a war that he wanted then he was going to get exactly that.

* * *

 **And with that we are now done with the Riser arc. Next up will be the Kokabiel arc, where we will get a glimpse of Zeroth's full power without the help of Regulus.**

 **And sorry for focusing a bit too much on Issei's battle with Riser, but this will be the last chapter he will have any focus on, though there might be a bit during his fight with Vali. But the rest of the story will just be on Zeroth after this.**

 **Also the next chapter might take a while to upload because I plan on finishing all of the chapters for the Kokabiel arc to give me some breathing room because as you can all tell I've been pumping these chapters out back to back for one month and I need a break.**

 **That also means that by the time I finish uploading the last chapter of the Kokabiel arc that I will hopefully be done with the Kuoh Treaty arc because I will be updating after I finish the next chapter after the ones that are already completed.  
**

 **I will keep an update progress though on my profile page as each chapter is completed.**

 **There also might be a lemon in the next arc, but no promises.**

 **Until then, see you all next time and thanks for all the support.**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER: Awakening**


	11. Awakening

Sweat trickled down my body as my demonic power and Touki surged around my body. At the moment even after years of training it was still impossible for me to figure out how to use them as one power, using them in tandem to enhance my physical capabilities as it took a lot of concentration on my part to use both of them at the same time.

Fusing my demonic power and Touki as one was the answer I had come up with to achieve a new form of power, but that was easier said than done.

Releasing a wave of demonic power in the form of black flames at my target I then followed up with a surge of Touki, releasing it from my fist.

The result was the complete destruction of the field in front of me, but it wasn't enough. Even as the dust settled, I still wasn't satisfied with the results.

That kind of power still wouldn't be enough for when Kokabiel arrived to restart the Great War.

Even though in the original timeline Vali arrived to stop Kokabiel's attacks, I didn't want to rely on outside help. Kokabiel was one of the leaders of the Fallen Angels, whose name was recorded in the Bible and my chance at finally getting to go all out and testing my limit without the aid of Regulus or my Balance Breaker.

My goal was to become the strongest and in order to achieve that I needed to rely on my own powers for once like the current Maou.

That was why I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if I condensed my power of destruction like Sirzechs did to achieve his true form, but at the same time fuse it with my Touki.

If Akeno could do it with her Holy Lightning to achieve her Fallen Angel form than it should definitely be possible for me. But she had the aid of the bracelets created by Azazel to achieve that form.

The only thing that I had was myself, my demonic power, and Touki. With the current state of the Three Factions it wasn't like I could just go up to Azazel and ask him for the bracelets.

Which meant that I was on my own with this task, well this was going to be fun.

If I remembered from reading the light novels was that Akeno achieved her form by condensing her Holy Lightning blood, but would that be possible for me, a Pure Devil?

Only one way to find out.

Releasing all of my demonic power at once it surged around my body, enveloping me in a black aura. I then began to condense the energy into my body, emitting the power around me.

The entire arena began to shake and even the ceiling also shook from the waves of demonic power being released from my body.

So far so good, now for the hard part.

While my demonic power surged around me I then released my Touki, and a white glow began to flow around my body.

My body began to tremble from the weight of the two powers being released at full power at once, causing me to collapse to my knees.

Not yet! This pain was nothing.

Gritting my teeth I then tried to combine my power of destruction and Touki together inside of my body. At that point pain exploded all around my body, but I had to endure it to see if it was possible.

I coughed up blood, but ignored the screams of my body telling me to stop.

Focusing in on my demonic power and Touki they slowly began to fuse together inside of my body, releasing another blast of energy that shattered the ground underneath me while the walls began to crumble.

Feeling my powers increasing, I realized that I was close to achieving my next form, but before that happened all of my demonic power dispersed, obliterating what remained of the arena.

Luckily the barrier was able to hold and kept the ceiling from falling on me.

Gasping for air, my body then gave out and collapsed, preventing me from being able to move at all.

Damn it, and I was so close to!

Thankfully before I could endure any more of the pain coursing through my body the door to the arena swung open, followed by a gasp.

"Zeroth-san!"

"G-Good timing, Asia."

The pain soon started to fade away as Asia rushed over to me and a green light enveloped my body. Man was I glad that she was on my peerage. Her Sacred Gear truly was useful for moments like these.

"I figured the earthquake was because of you." My Queen entered the arena with a sigh while Asia continued to heal my body.

"You shouldn't push yourself, Zeroth-san." Asia said.

"I'm fine it was just an experiment gone wrong."

"You should have told us that you would be down here, Zeroth-sama." Ravel scolded, looking around at the destruction caused by my training.

Kuisha shrugged her shoulders. "There was no need since he is usually down here anyways. You'll learn that soon enough."

"You went all out this time-nya."

"Were you trying to bring down the house on you, Zero-sama?"

Great, now all of them were here to lecture me.

"Just training, that's all."

Looks like it was going to take a while to achieve my true form. Hopefully it would be ready by the time Kokabiel arrived.

"Do you need me to help, Asia?" The one who had asked that was Valerie, much to my surprise.

"No," I replied before Asia could. "Asia is fine on her own."

I didn't want Valerie to use her Longinus anymore than she needed to. As long as she was with me she would not have to worry about using the Holy Grail.

Besides that was why Asia was here, to be the healer instead.

"It's fine, Valerie-san." Asia smiled while she continued to heal me.

And just like that my first day of achieving my true form ended with some success, as it wasn't a complete failure in my eyes.

* * *

The next day I was in the club room with Rias and her peerage, along with Sona and her new Pawn, and Asia and Ravel. Rias had finally decided that it was time to introduce us to Hyoudou and Raynare, the newcomers of her peerage though I was already familiar with Raynare due to our previous encounter involving Asia and already knew all about Hyoudou.

No doubt Raynare was still traumatized from our previous engagement after all she must have realized the difference of power between us and that if I had wanted to she would have been dead before she could even blink.

While we waited for Hyoudou and Raynare to arrive, Rias decided to bring up my engagement with Ravel. "I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised that Oji-san arranged a match with the House of Phenex."

"Took him long enough."

Rias smiled. "That means that he's finally acknowledged you at least as the next Great King."

"Maybe, but that man takes forever to come up with a final decision."

"At least he won't have to worry about you breaking off the engagement like Rias," Sona said.

Rias frowned. "You wouldn't have accepted Riser as your husband either, Sona."

"Because I know he would never have been able to beat me in a game of chess."

"Sorry you have to hear this," I apologized to Ravel.

"It's fine. I'm well aware that Rias-sama never got along with Onii-sama."

"That may be so, but he is still your brother."

Even if he happened to be the worst guy in the series before he reformed his ways he was still Ravel's older brother who she respected.

I then focused my attention on Saji, the new guy in the room and the secretary for the Student Council. Thanks to him I no longer had to worry about helping out Sona and her group.

"Your name is Saji, correct?"

"Uh y-yes, my name is Saji Genshirou, a second year and I am Kaichou's Pawn."

It would seem that he was a bit intimidated by me because of my status as the strongest young Devil and a member of the Great King House.

"Relax, I'm not as strict as your King so you don't need to be so formal around me. My name is Zeroth Bael by the way, a third year like Sona and Rias."

"And I am Ravel Phenex, a member of the House of Phenex and Zeroth-sama's betrothed."

Which means that she's off limits, Saji.

"N-Nice to meet you," Saji said, blushing before bowing his head at Ravel.

"I will be in your care as well," Asia said, with a shy look on her face.

"Yeah, if it's Asia-san then I will be glad to help," Saji exclaimed, but quickly stopped when he saw me glaring at him.

Asia is also off limits as well, Saji.

Before we could continue though the door to the club room swung open and Hyoudou stepped in along with Raynare. As soon as Raynare's eyes fell on me she flinched and looked away.

That's right, be afraid of me.

Hyoudou's eyes widened in shock when he saw me and Sona in the room with the others. "S-Senpai and Kaichou."

Saji seemed to regain his composure when he saw Hyoudou and smirked. "Oh so you didn't mention us to Hyoudou, Rias-senpai? It's also weird not to notice us, when we are Devils as well."

"Saji, it can't be helped because we are not supposed to contact each other at normal times. Also it hasn't been that long since he became a Devil. Hyoudou-kun is responding like he is supposed to." Sona told him.

"That is right, besides we all have our own responsibilities here." I added.

"Some of us do anyways," Rias said.

"Whatever."

Akeno then explained to Hyoudou about us also being Devils from the Bael and Sitri Clan.

"You guys are getting peaceful school life because Kaichou and us, the Devil servants of Sitri, are working at daytime. It won't be bad for you to remember that, you know? By the way, my name is Saji Genshirou. I'm in second year, and I am Kaichou's "Pawn"."

"Oooh, the same year as me and also the same "Pawn" as me!" Hyoudou exclaimed.

Saji then sighed, much to my amusement. "Actually you damaged my pride very badly. For you, one of the three pervs, to be the same "Pawn" as me."

"W-What did you say!?"

"Oh? You wanna go at it? Even if I look like this, I'm a "Pawn" that consumed 4 pieces of "Pawns". Even if I just turned into a Devil, I won't lose against someone like Hyoudou."

Leave it to those two to already start a fight with each other.

"Saji, stop that."

"B-But Kaichou!"

"The reason we came here was to introduce our new servants amongst fellow High-Class Devils where we have this school as our base. In other words it is a meeting to introduce you, Zeroth and Rias's servants, Hyoudou-kun, Raynare-san, and Asia-san. If you are my servant than don't shame me. Besides, you can't win against Hyoudou-kun right now. He is the one who defeated the third son of the house of Phenex. Consuming 8 "Pawn" pieces was not just for show."

"8 pieces!? Wait, this is the guy who defeated the Phenex!? For this guy to beat that Riser, I thought that it was Kiba or Himejima-senpai who rescued Rias-senpai."

"I am sorry Hyoudou Issei-kun, Raynare-san, and Asia Argento-san. My servant hasn't experienced as much battles as you three, so he still has a rude attitude in him. If it's okay, can you please get along with him?"

"Saji."

"Eh? Y-Yes! Please get along with me!" Saji bowed his head reluctantly at Hyoudou.

"While this was all very interesting I have some training to get back to. Asia, Ravel, let's go."

"Y-Yes."

We then took our leave, but I stopped and looked back at Rias and Sona.

"Oh and good luck with your Ball Tournament, you two."

"Thank you, Zeroth," Rias smiled.

"You should also participate," Sona added.

"Maybe some other time."

* * *

"Sorry about this, Kuroka."

"It's fine, besides we haven't had much alone time together anyways lately-nya."

We were in the training area where Kuroka was healing me with her Senjutsu. I had decided to let Asia take a rest from healing my injuries after training and instead had Kuroka take over to let Asia get some rest.

My shirt was taken off, leaving my chest bare for Kuroka to heal my injuries more easily. Even after years of rigorous training to strengthen my body past the limit it still wasn't enough to prepare for me for the intense pain that followed after trying to awaken my true form.

But that pain was still not enough to deter me from achieving it. Kokabiel was coming and my body, Touki, and power of destruction wouldn't be enough to defeat him in my current state.

"You really are a strange man," Kuroka sighed, drawing me away from my thoughts.

What did she mean by that?

"Even though we are alone, just the two of us, you haven't even once tried to do anything to me." She had a mischievous glint in her eyes as she lifted up her leg, practically showing it off and pressing her cleavage slightly forward to give me a good view. "Is it because I am not your type or is it true that you only prefer blondes-nya?"

Not her too.

"It's not because of that."

There were just a lot of other things on my mind at the moment preventing me from interacting with the rest of my peerage. That and because my focus at the moment was to get stronger.

Still, it really was hard to resist the urge to take Kuroka then and there and make her my woman with the way she teased me like that. She really did have a voluptuous body, not to mention that her bust size was the third largest in the series behind Rias and Akeno.

"Then what is it? I know you haven't done it with the others either yet."

"I just prefer to take things slow."

Kuroka smirked. "You say that, but I know that you want to do it." She purred, pressing her chest in closer against mine to the point where her breasts were rubbing against my chest, feeling all warm and soft through her kimono.

Damn it, she really was making it difficult for me to resist my urges.

"You know, I wouldn't mind having a baby with you-nya. Though I would have preferred to have a child of a dragon, but if it's you then I don't mind because you are descended from the Great King of Bael and are the strongest of your generation. Not to mention that I still owe you for helping me mend my relationship with Shirone."

"You don't owe me anything. As a King it is my responsibility to take care of my servant's problems."

Besides, her current situation in my peerage was a lot better than were she in Vali's Team and a member of Hyoudou's harem. At least with me she was able to rekindle her relationship with Shirone and didn't have to become a terrorist because of her status as a Stray Devil.

"Then you don't mind taking responsibility for me-nya?" Kuroka sat on my lap, grinding against my crotch while drawing her face closer to mine.

Where is a distraction when you need one?

Before I could respond to her advances she immediately detached herself from me and headed for the exit. She walked calmly and at her normal pace, as if nothing had ever happened.

She then looked over her shoulder, grinning at me. "You might want to calm down before leaving. You'd give Asia-chan a fright if she saw you in that state."

What did she, oh fuck, damn hormones.

I shouldn't have been at all surprised that she managed to give me an erection with her teasing. Leave it to Kuroka to get me worked up like that.

Man was I glad that no one else was in the arena but me.

* * *

"This is delicious!"

"Right, I thought you'd like it."

I was currently at a family restaurant with Ravel on one of our dates. Though I technically knew all about her from the light novels and her wikia page in this world I did not so it was only natural we would get to know each other by going out together. No doubt Kuisha and the others would be jealous, but it couldn't be helped since Ravel was my future wife and the next Great Queen of Bael when I succeeded my father as the next Head.

Kokabiel was coming, but it couldn't hurt to enjoy these kinds of moments once in a while. Besides after this peace would be made between the Three Factions and the only threat that would matter after this would be the Khaos Brigade. And with Valerie under my protection and the Great King's all that would matter was protecting her from Rizevim to prevent him from reviving Trihexa and the Evil Dragons.

And the only thing left to worry about was the threat from the future, which would happen thirty years from now, but that was a problem for another time.

The problem for me at the moment was my true form. There must be some kind of catalyst missing before it could be unlocked, but what was it?

Balance Breakers were achieved by high emotions combined with a change in the heart or spirit of the wielder. They could also be activated when the user was faced with a disadvantageous situation.

Maybe one of those two methods could work with my true form. It was worth a try.

Ravel's sigh interrupted my thoughts. "Your mother was right about you always thinking about training."

"Am I that easy to read?"

"Of course. You always have that faraway look on your face when you are deep in thought."

"Sorry."

Ravel shook her head. "It's fine."

"How are you adjusting to the school here, by the way? Are Asia and Jeanne helping you when you need it?"

"They are, though I am still having trouble adjusting to the human world because I am a Devil and they are humans."

"You'll get used to it eventually."

It was easy for me because I used to be a human before being reincarnated in this world as a High-Class Devil. For Ravel it was expected that she would have difficulties adjusting considering her formal lifestyle as a High-Class Devil and learning how to interact with ordinary people.

"It's difficult, but I know that getting to know people who aren't nobles and learning from the commoner's lifestyle is important!"

"With Asia and Jeanne by your side you'll get along with them easily."

"By the way, you are planning to add them to your harem, correct? That's why you added to them to your peerage."

Her question caught me completely off guard before realizing that it was normal for High-Class Devils like myself to have harems, especially with their servants.

"Is that a problem?"

"Not really, as it is quite common for our kind to form harems since we are so few in numbers."

"That is true."

Ravel smiled when she seemed to realize what I was thinking. "You thought that I would be against you having a harem, didn't you, Zeroth-sama?"

"Y-Yeah."

"You don't need to worry about that and if you need any help making time with your servants then you can leave it all to me!"

"I'll be sure to remember that next time."

Man was I lucky to have someone like Ravel as my future wife. I had almost forgotten about her manager skills and how she could be relied on to prepare schedules with the other girls of my peerage.

Sorry Hyoudou, but you were going to have to find a different person to manage your life this time around.

* * *

"Why do you not want me to use my Sacred Gear?"

"Because I don't want you to overuse it."

I was currently showing Valerie around Kuoh Town after deciding that she could spend some time outside of the house. No doubt she was bored of being stuck inside all day with Kuroka.

"You continue to surprise me. I thought you only wanted me because of the Holy Grail."

"You are confusing me with your brother. The only powers I need are the ones that I have and obtained on my own."

"I can heal your injuries a lot faster than Asia can though," Valerie pointed out.

"At the cost of you overusing your Sacred Gear. No, until we can find a way for you to use your Sacred Gear without harming yourself, I won't let you use it."

It was for Valerie's own wellbeing that I was doing this. Because Marius had most likely done lots of research on the Holy Grail, forcing Valerie to constantly use it to the point where she suffered a mental breakdown, but that had not happened this time because of Marcus's intervention though there was no telling how much damage had been done to her before she was taken away.

"Then what about seeing your cousin's Bishop? You promised that I would be able to see them."

"I told you, Rias can't unseal them until she is given permission from the higher-ups. Besides, there's no guarantee that her Bishop is your friend."

A lie, but Valerie didn't need to know that.

I knew full well that Rias's Bishop was Gasper Vladi, Valerie's childhood friend, but it probably wouldn't be such a good idea to get Rias to unseal him this early when Kokabiel had not yet attacked and there was no peace between the Three Factions.

For now she would just have to wait patiently until Rias could unseal him.

Valerie sighed, clearly disappointed with my response. "I know, but if there's even a slight chance that it's Gasper then I want to see him as soon as possible. I just never believed that I would ever get a chance to see him again until now."

"Don't worry. I'm certain that you will be able to see him again."

As much as I wanted to tell Valerie that Rias's Bishop was Gasper, I couldn't. Sure Rias had told me about her Bishop, but she never said that it was a Dhamphir and would have found it strange if I had requested to let Valerie see them.

Suddenly my body started to scream warning signs at me and I stopped along with Valerie when my eyes fell upon two figures looking in our direction from the other side of the road.

My eyes widened in surprise when I instantly recognized them due to their Rosario hanging around their chests and white robes. One had chestnut colored hair and the other one had blue hair with a green mesh and fierce looking eyes. They were both quite beautiful to look at.

"Devil." Were the first words Xenovia said when we looked into each other's eyes.

* * *

The members of my peerage were all gathered inside my house along with our guests. Even though I used to be human, my instincts as a Devil was telling me that they were dangerous. It was still hard to believe that by chance I had somehow ran into Xenovia and Irina first, thus they had decided to bring up the matter of why they were here to me and my peerage.

"Recently the Holy-swords Excaliburs that were kept by the Catholic Church Headquarter Vatican, Protestant Church, and Eastern Orthodox Church were stolen." Irina explained.

Deciding to go along with the flow and pretend that I didn't know why they were here I asked, "So what does the stolen Excaliburs have to do with this country located in the east of the World?"

At least Kokabiel making a move against the Devils and Heaven hadn't changed. Though that meant I needed to train even harder now because it was only a matter of time before he decided to attack Kuoh Academy.

Though they hadn't revealed their Excaliburs to us because we didn't need any explanations of what they were, I couldn't help but glance at the swords they wielded.

Call me a nerd or whatever, but I had always reading stories about myths and legends, and Excalibur was one of the legendary swords wielded by King Arthur.

Xenovia then continued the conversation. "The Catholic Church was in possession of two Excaliburs including mine. The Protestant Church also had two. Also in the Eastern Orthodox Church there were two as well. The last one went missing in the previous war between God, devils, and fallen-angels. One Excalibur was stolen from each Church. The ones that stole them escaped to Japan, and brought them to this town."

"Who were the ones that stole them?" Though I already knew the answer before Xenovia replied.

"The ones that stole them were the Grigori."

"I see."

"We know the main culprit who stole the Excaliburs. One of the leaders of Grigori, Kokabiel."

No surprise there.

"We sent priests, exorcists, to this town secretly but they kept getting killed."

As if those lowly guys would be able to anything against the likes of Kokabiel or the crazy-priest Freed.

"Then what is that you want from me?"

"Our request, no, our order is to not to have any devils intrude in the battle between us and the fallen-angels for the Excaliburs. In other words, we came here to tell you not to interfere with this incident. It would also be helpful for us if you informed Rias Gremory of our meeting as well, Zeroth Bael."

"Do you believe that I am in league with them?"

"The headquarters think that it might not be impossible."

Now I could understand why Rias was pissed the first time in the original timeline. As if I would ever form an alliance with the fallen-angels.

"The higher-ups don't trust devils and fallen-angels. We were ordered as [If the holy-swords are taken away from God's side then the devils would also be happy right? The fallen-angels would also profit from it. For those reasons it won't be weird for them to form an alliance. That's why we are giving you a warning. If you form an alliance with the fallen-angel Kokabiel then we will eliminate you all. Even if you are the next Great King, by our boss."

"You have my word as the next Great King of Bael that I, along with my cousin have not formed any sorts of alliance with the fallen-angels."

Xenovia laughed. "Hearing that is good enough. I had to warn you just in case that Kokabiel is hiding himself in this town along with the three Excaliburs. If something were to happen I would be the one to be hated by the bunch in the Church headquarters. Well, we won't ask for cooperation. If you were to form an alliance with God's side temporally, then it would affect the balance of the three factions. Especially if it's the next Great King."

Rias was definitely not going to like this when she heard about my meeting with these two.

"Then we will take our leave now. Let's go Irina."

Irina then got up and started to follow Xenovia before they both stopped and looked in the same direction at Asia.

Damn, I totally forgot about this part. This was when they were going to start insulting Asia. I should have let her sit this one out before letting them in.

"I figured it was you," Xenovia muttered and to my surprise, pointed an accusing finger at me. "You are the Devil that led away the Holy Maiden, Asia Argento."

"Eh?"

Don't tell me that she was confusing me with Diodora Astaroth?

Xenovia glared at me and rested a hand on her Excalibur, causing my body to tense up. "Because of this time it will be overlooked due to us being outnumbered and this meeting not being official to preserve the unspoken truce of the factions, but I cannot help but want to cut you down for your actions against that girl over there. And also the Holy Battle Maiden, the one who inherited the spirit of the saint."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

I glared at Xenovia, pissed off that she would ever compare me to the likes of someone like Diodora.

I forgot how much of a bitch Xenovia was before she became a Devil.

"Though the Devil was never identified, it's clear to me now that the one who lured the maidens away from the Church is you, Zeroth Bael!"

"Pathetic, the only thing I did was save them after they were cast out by your people. The Devil you have me confused for is Diodora Astaroth, the next Duke of Astaroth!"

"You may be speaking the truth, but you're here with the two maidens that had been lured away from the Church. Also, there have been reports of others over the years as well. Could it be that the others behind you are also maidens you've lured away with your lies and deceit?"

Was this girl serious?

As if someone like Ravel, Kuisha, Kuroka, or Valerie could ever be maidens of a Church.

"The ones behind me are Devils from other clans. You need to get your facts straight before accusing someone of something they didn't do."

Xenovia reluctantly relented after I released my demonic power at her at full burst, letting her know that I could easily destroy her if I wanted to, even if she had Durandal with her.

"Fine. I'll let this slide for now, so I won't tell the higher-ups what I saw here, so rest assured. People who were around the "Holy Maiden Asia" and "Battle Maiden Jeanne" will also get shocked as well."

"Then if there's nothing else, I suggest that you two leave. I will inform Rias of your request as well when I see her."

"That will be appreciated."

Xenovia then bowed her head as if nothing had happened and then took her leave with Irina, leaving me alone with my peerage.

Though I was still pissed about Xenovia comparing me to Diodora, I needed to get back to training in order to prepare for Kokabiel's arrival.

* * *

 **Finally done with the Kokabiel/Excalibur arc, and man does it feel good to have some extra chapters before updating. As promised here is the first chapter. I'll be uploading the next chapter once I get started on the first chapter of the next arc.  
**

 **I tried to stretch out the arc to 5 chapters, but ended with 4 instead.**

 **There won't be any lemons in this arc as there wasn't any room to fit it in, well there was, but I felt that it was too early to have any lemon moments, but there will definitely be lemons in the near future.  
**

 **Anyways that's it from me, hope you all enjoyed it and see you all next time.**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER: Unholy Alliance  
**


	12. Unholy Alliance

"And? What was the reason for calling me?"

"I'd like to know that as well, Hyoudou."

After spotting Hyoudou heading off somewhere, I realized what he was up to and decided to track him down to the train station where Shirone and Saji were also there.

Hyoudou looked nervous and no doubt was debating whether or not to tell me as I was a High-Class Devil like Sona and Rias and thought that I would inform them about his plan.

"He's right. What were you two trying to do?"

Shirone was also amongst the group as we waited for Hyoudou to reply to our questions, though I was the only knew why were here.

"You won't tell Buchou or Kaichou about this will you, senpai?" Hyoudou asked me.

"Depends on what it is that you are up to."

Hyoudou sighed and revealed why we were here. "I'm going to ask Shidou Irina and Xenovia to give me permission to destroy the holy-sword Excaliburs."

"This is about Yuuto-senpai, right? I will help as well." Shirone replied after giving some thought about it.

"I suppose I could tag along and supervise you lot."

"R-Really?" Hyoudou's eyes widened in response to my words. "I was certain that you would turn us in to Buchou and Kaichou."

"This is for Rias's sake, right? Then as her cousin it is my duty to make certain that you guys don't get into any trouble. However, if you guys are in danger then I will not hesitate to report to Rias about your actions, is that understood?"

"Y-Yes!"

Saji however did not at all agree with the plan and screamed, trying to run away. "Nooooooooo! I'm going home!"

Shirone however caught him before he could run off. "You aren't going anywhere."

"Hyoudou! Why me!? It's your group's problem, right!? I belong to the House of Sitri! I shouldn't take part in this! Not at all!" Saji cried.

Man this guy was a crybaby.

"Don't say that Saji. The only Devils that I know who seems willing to help me are you and senpai."

"Bullshit! There's no way that I will help youuuu! I'm going to get killed! I'm going to get killed by Kaichouuuuu! Your master, Rias-senpai, might be strict and kind! But you know what! You know Kaichou!? She's strict AND strict!"

That part was true, but well Saji would be able to endure the punishment Sona gave him when they were caught.

"I'm certain she'll go easy on you if I vouch for you."

"Y-You think so?"

"Yeah."

Not really, but he didn't need to know that.

And with that we are off, looking for Shidou Irina and Xenovia in town, though I was still a bit pissed about my last meeting with Xenovia for comparing me to the likes of Diodora Astaroth.

"Hey Shirone-chan. You know that Kiba is a victim of the "Holy-sword Project" and also harbors a grudge towards Excalibur, right?" Hyoudou asked.

Shirone nodded in response.

"From what Buchou told me from senpai, they said this, "the Church decided that it would be better to eliminate all the Excaliburs rather than letting them be used by the Fallen-Angels. Our minimum objective is to get the Excaliburs away from the Fallen-Angels." So in other words they have to destroy the stolen Excaliburs or retrieve them, right?"

"Yes. That's right."

"That's why I thought we could help them retrieve those. By making Kiba the main person. Three swords were stolen, so they won't mind if we retrieve or break one of them."

"In other words, you want Kiba to overcome Excalibur and to fulfill his wish, right?" I interrupted.

Hyoudou nodded his head and smiled. "Kiba wants to win against Excalibur and accomplish his and his former comrades' revenge. Xenovia and Irina want to retrieve the Excaliburs from the Fallen-Angels even if they have to destroy them. We have the same aim then. What's left is to see if those two will listen to the words of us Devils."

"Just remember, if anything happens to you lot, I'll be sure to let Rias and Sona know about it."

"And if you are here with us it will be more convincing to them as you are a High-Class Devil," Hyoudou added.

This guy could actually be smart when he wanted to be.

"You do know that if we try to negotiate with them it might lead to a fight and the tension between us and them might get even worse. Well, if that happens then you three can run away if it gets dangerous."

"Let me run nowwww! That's the worst! I'd get killed by Kaichou if I do something like destroying the Excaliburs without her permission! She will definitely torture meeeeee!"

And there goes the crybaby again.

"Shut up!" I glared at Saji, causing him to clamp his mouth shut.

"There's also a chance the negotiation will be a success and if that happens, then I could use your guy's help." Hyoudou said.

"Uwaaaaaa! That's so irresponsible! I'll die! I'd definitely get killed!"

I was really starting to wish that I had something on me that could be used to gag him right about now.

"I won't run away. It's for our comrade." Shirone said.

Sure some time would be wasted from my training, but at least with me here Xenovia, Irina, and Kiba would have a better chance at escaping when they decided to chase after Freed.

And just as expected, it was not at all that difficult to find two women on an undercover mission.

"Please give blessings to the lost lamb-"

"Please give charity to us on behalf of the father in heaven!"

It was kind of sad actually how easy it was to find them. The two of them stood out like a sore thumb with their white robes and they looked like they were having some trouble. People were walking past them giving them odd glances.

"How can this be? This is the reality of the developed country of Japan? That's why I don't like countries that don't have the smell of our beliefs."

"Don't say that, Xenovia. We lost all the money we had. So we have to rely on charity from these heretics or else we can't get food, you know? Aaah, we can't even buy a single loaf of bread!"

"Hmph. It all happened because you bought that fake looking painting."

Xenovia pointed at a painting of a saint that was drawn really badly. Man, even I was certain that I could have drawn something better than that.

"What are you saying? This painting has the drawing of someone who looks like a saint! That's what the person in the exhibition said as well!"

"Then do you know who the person in the drawing is? I certainly don't."

The person in the picture certainly looked like a foreigner and was wearing poor clothing and had something on his head. There was also a baby Angel on the background with a trumpet who was floating in the air.

"I think it's…Saint…Peter…?"

"Don't mess around. Saint Peter wouldn't look like this."

"No, he must have looked like this! I'm sure about it!"

"Aaah, why did my partner have to be someone like you…God, is this also a trial?"

"Hey don't hold your head down. You really get depressed when you are down, don't you."

"Shut up! That's why the Protestants are called heretics! You guys have different beliefs than us Catholics! Show more respect to the saints!"

"What! What's wrong, it is Catholicism where they still abide by the old law!"

""What did you say, heretic?""

Those two started to argue by banging their heads against each other, but then we heard their stomachs rumble as we got closer to them. They then both dropped to the ground with their stomachs rumbling.

"First of all, let's do something to fill our stomachs. Or else it's not a matter of retrieving the Excaliburs."

"You are right. Do you want to get money from the heretics by threatening them? I think God will forgive us if we threaten the heretics."

"Do you plan to attack the shrine? Or do you plan to steal their offertory box? Don't do either. Let's use our swords to put on a performance. It's an international entertainment that works in every country."

"That's an excellent idea! If we can cut fruits with our Excaliburs, then we can gather cash!"

"Well, we don't have fruits. It can't be helped. Let's cut that picture."

"No! You can't cut this down!"

The two of them started to argue again and I approached them with an annoyed look on my face. Man it was hard to believe that these two were the same girls I argued with about my peerage.

* * *

Moments later we were all at a family restaurant, watching the two Exorcists devour their meals down like a pack of hungry wolves.

"Delicious! Japanese cuisine is delicious!"

"Yes, yes! This is it! This is the taste of the food of my homeland!"

Man they sure do eat a lot as they started to fill their stomachs with the food they ordered. Luckily for them I was paying and could afford all of this due to my family being rich and all that. Though having Xenovia and her Durandal on my peerage would be all worth it in the end once Kokabiel was dealt with.

"Um, Senpai, that's quite a lot of food they're eating. Are you sure you can cover that?" Hyoudou asked.

"Why? Are you offering to split the bill?" Chuckling as Hyoudou blanched in response. "That's what I thought. Don't worry about, I can afford it."

After a few more minutes the two Exorcists finally finished, allowing their several stacks of plates to rest at the side. When Xenovia and Irina gave their blessings to us, and we all flinched in response, glaring at them, though Irina apologized while Xenovia didn't seem to mind at all.

"Don't think that this means I've forgiven you for your actions against the Holy Maidens," Xenovia told me after taking a sip from her drink.

"I thought I told you already, you have the wrong Devil."

How many times did I need to repeat myself before it got through that thick skull of hers?

Xenovia huffed in response then looked at the rest of the group. "So, why did you come to us?"

"We want to help you destroy the Excalibur fragments you are looking for."

Though they didn't show it, it was obvious they were surprised by my proposal.

Luckily our previous meeting did not deter Xenovia from agreeing to my offer.

"Yeah. Maybe it's okay leaving one sword to you guys. If you can destroy it, that is. But make sure that your identities aren't revealed. We also don't want our high-ups and enemies to think that we are connected to you guys."

"Hey Xenovia. Are you sure? They are still Devils, you know?" Irina objected in response.

"Irina. To tell you the truth, it would really be tough to retrieve the three Excaliburs and to battle Kokabiel with only the two of us."

"I know that. But!"

"The minimum objectives we have to achieve are destroying the three Excaliburs or take them back. If our Excaliburs are going to be stolen as well then we should break them before it happens. Even if we use the last resort, there's only a 30 percent chance that we will succeed in our mission and return home safely."

"Even so, we thought that the success rate was high enough to come to this country prepared to put our life on the line."

"Yeah. The high-ups also told us to continue with our mission as well and dispatched us to this country. It's almost self-sacrifice."

"And isn't that what we, the followers, desire for?"

"I changed my mind. My beliefs are flexible. So I can act in the best way."

"You! I have been thinking about it for a long time, but your faith is a bit weird!"

"I won't deny it. But I think that it's our duty to accomplish our mission and return safely. I'm going to live and continue fighting for God. Am I wrong?"

"Then you'll accept our help?" I asked before they decided to change their minds.

"Of course."

"Then since the negotiations were a success, I will call my partner for this occasion." Hyoudou said and got up to call Kiba.

A little while later Kiba arrived and sat down to hear out Hyoudou's proposal.

"I understand the situation." Kiba sighed, after putting down his drink. "To tell the truth, I feel unsatisfied when the wielders of the Excaliburs are giving me the permission to destroy it."

"That's a rough way to speak. If you were a "Stray-Devil", I would have cut you down without any time to spare."

Xenovia just loves to make enemies, doesn't she?

"So you do hold a grudge regarding the "Holy-sword Project". Against the church and the Excaliburs." Irina interrupted.

"Obviously." Kiba replied, glaring at Irina.

"But Kiba-kun. Thanks to that project, the research on holy-sword users showed results. That's why it created people like Xenovia and I who can synchronize with the holy swords."

"Do you think it's a forgiving act to kill all the test subjects because the project was thought to be a failure?"

"That incident also became one of the worst cases among us and people felt disgusted about it. The person in charge of that project at that time was said to have a problem with his belief. So he was charged with heresy. Now he's one of those people on the Fallen-Angels side." Xenovia said.

"On the Fallen-Angel's side? What's the name of that person?" Kiba asked.

"Valper Galilei. The man who is called the "Genocide Archbishop"."

"If I go after Fallen-Angels, then can I reach him." Kiba muttered, with a determined look on his face. "Then it looks like I have to share information as well. The other day I was attacked by a person who had the Excalibur. At that time, he killed a priest. The one who was killed is probably from your organization."

I was the only one not surprised while the others were.

"The name of that person is Freed Zelzan. Does this name sound familiar?"

So that guy survived, huh. I wonder if he held a grudge against me and my peerage for ruining his fun after taking down Raynare's group.

"I see. So it's him."

"Freed Zelzan. Former exorcist of the Vatican. The genius who became an exorcist at the age of 13. He had lots of big achievements because he kept on eliminating Devils and mystical beasts."

"But he overdid it. He even killed his allies. Freed never had any beliefs towards our God from the start. The only thing he had was fighting instinct and killing intent towards monsters. And an abnormal obsession for battles. It was a matter of time that he'd be charged for heresy."

Not at all surprising that the Church would have a problem dealing with a guy like Freed.

"Is that so? Freed used the Excalibur he stole to kill our fellow followers. For us to pay the price because the disposal group couldn't take care of him that time." Xenovia said, with hatred in her voice. "Anyways, let's move onto the cooperation strategy."

She then took out a pen and used it to write on a memo pad, giving us her contact details.

"If something happens, call this number."

"Then I will take my leave for now." I then handed Xenovia and Irina my contact information. "I have other matters to take care of, so I need to go."

And with that I took my leave, looking forward to Kokabiel's arrival.

* * *

It was finally completed.

The power that I was seeking was finally in my grasp. While Hyoudou and the others had continued their fruitless search for Freed, I had spent my time unlocking my true form in preparation for our fight against Kokabiel. We were getting ever closer to the confrontation and I had finally managed to awaken my powers in the nick of time.

"Now I understand why you wanted me to throw up a barrier-nya."

It was no surprise that Kuroka and Kuisha were shocked by the amount of demonic power and Touki pouring from my body. Even the barrier that Kuroka had put up was about to collapse from the immense power coming from my body.

While my power of destruction covered my body in a black aura, my Touki coursed through my veins, giving off a white glow throughout my body.

Even after years of rigorous training, it was still difficult for my body to endure the strain of the immense power flowing from my body. At the moment, I could only maintain this form for thirty minutes, but that would be enough for my fight against Kokabiel.

"This was the power that you were searching for, Zeroth-sama?" Kuisha asked.

"Yeah."

Now our chances of defeating Kokabiel on our own without Vali's help had increased because of this form. And given time and training it might even be able to surpass Sirzechs' Human-Shaped Aura of Destruction, though that would be years from now.

What mattered now was if it would be able to hold its own against Kokabiel.

On my own it probably wouldn't be possible, but with Hyoudou's Boosted Gear there was a chance, because when he used it on Rias during their fight against Kokabiel her demonic power had reached the level of a Ultimate-Class Devil and with me being ahead of her in terms of power I might be able to reach Maou-Class in this form with Hyoudou's Boosted Gear.

And I already had several techniques in mind to use against Kokabiel; inspired from my knowledge of other anime shows and manga I had watched and read in my previous life.

However, Kokabiel was not the only strong foe out there that would be a challenge. I was going to need to train even harder for my future opponents, but first I needed to survive this ordeal.

"Though it would seem that you still can't fully control it, but that is to be expected after you just awakened it," Kuisha noted.

"Given more time and training he will definitely master it-nya."

"Yeah, this is just the beginning."

I clenched my fist and deactivated my new form.

Even after releasing it, my body was still was worn out from all the pressure put on it from maintaining both my Touki and condensed power of destruction at the same time.

One of the downsides of this form, but just like how Vali was able to master his Empireo Juggernaut Overdrive, it would be possible for me as well to master it and keep my body from being exhausted after using it.

"Kuroka, you can take down the barrier, we are done for today."

"Already done."

We then left the arena after the repairs were done.

Kuroka then headed off somewhere while Kuisha and I were left alone in the hallway.

"You seem to be interested in Rias-sama's new Pawn," Kuisha noted.

"Well he did manage to defeat a member of the Phenex Clan. That's quite an achievement for a low-class Devil."

"He only won because of his Boosted Gear."

"True, but it doesn't change the fact that he still won."

Hyoudou would only continue to get stronger after his victory over Riser, but that would also be the same for me as well. He and I had the same kind of fighting techniques, but my body was much stronger than his was and along with my new form and Balance Breaker, it would be an easy win for me when we fought in our Rating Game.

Just like Hyoudou, I was going to continue training to defeat all of my future enemies and rise to the top. Hyoudou and the others were all just obstacles in my way from achieving my goal.

"Does that boy frighten you?"

"What do you mean?"

As if I was scared of that perverted idiot.

"He has the Boosted Gear and the power to surpass that of a Maou and God. If he is able to master it he may even surpass you one day."

"True, but he isn't the only one with a Longinus."

If there was one way to prevent Hyoudou from getting stronger it was to make certain that he did not die when Shalba Beelzebub attacked with Samael. Because of his death, he was revived with the flesh of Great Red and Ophis, giving him the ability to become one of the strongest beings in the world.

This time things would be different though with me in the picture.

Hyoudou was going to have get stronger on his own this time around instead of being saved by plot armor.

"In terms of level the Regulus Nemea is weaker than the Boosted Gear." Kuisha pointed out.

"In the end it all depends on how the wielder uses it and if they can master it. Hyoudou just awakened his while I have had years to master my Sacred Gear."

Hyoudou wasn't a threat to my goal of becoming the strongest. Not when my knowledge of future events would allow me to prevent Hyoudou from getting stronger, but Kuisha didn't know that.

Still, if things didn't go my way there was always my alternate power-up with the enhanced form of Breakdown the Beast.

"If he can master it that is," Kuisha muttered.

"Never underestimate a Sacred Gear possessor, they will always manage to surprise you."

Kuisha smiled. "I'll remember that the next time we fight against a Sacred Gear user."

She was really cute when she smiled.

We then entered the kitchen and to my surprise we were greeted by the sight of three blonde beauties in the kitchen wearing aprons, exposing more skin than was necessary.

W-What the hell was this?

Even I couldn't help but feel aroused at the sight in front of me. It really was becoming difficult for me to resist the urge to ravage their bodies.

Looks like I was going to be making one of them my woman sooner than later.

Ravel and Asia were blushing like mad in their aprons while Jeanne seemed to be enjoying herself, showing off her body to me.

"W-What is the meaning of this?" Kuisha asked, her eyebrows twitching in annoyance.

"This was not at all what I was expecting."

"A friend of mine in class told me that you have to wear nothing under the apron when you work in the kitchen in Japan. It's embarrassing, but I have to get used to the culture here." Asia replied, with a red face.

"T-This is really embarrassing," Ravel added, looking away from me.

"You guys need to stop holding back and enjoy yourselves." Jeanne was the only one who seemed to be having the time of her life.

"Asia, who told this?" I couldn't help but ask.

"My friend Kiryuu-san. Of course, we're not wearing any underwear, but it feels cold."

It was true. Even Ravel and Jeanne weren't wearing any. It was hard for me to believe that a High-Class Devil like Ravel would do something like this.

Still, who the hell was Kiryuu?

I didn't remember all of the side characters in the light novels and anime, only the ones who were important to the plot and story.

Though I probably would need to thank her for letting me get a chance to see this three in such an erotic outfit.

"You guys should wear those more often when you are in the kitchen."

"Zeroth-sama!" Kuisha snapped, glaring at me.

Well excuse me for having some lecherous thoughts in my head and wanting to enjoy the moment some more. I was still a man after all.

* * *

It should be about time that Freed showed up along with Valper.

I was currently relaxing in my room after another day of school, looking out for any signs of irregular flow of power in the area.

Hyoudou and the others would be together about now, searching the area again for Freed, hoping that he would show himself. They had offered me to come along, but I had refused, instead placing a tracking spell on Hyoudou so that when I did sense an irregular flow in the area I would be able to teleport to where they were in an instant.

Waiting was the boring part though.

It gave me time however to plan my next moves against Kokabiel.

My best shot would be to follow after Kiba, Xenovia, and Irina when they chased after Freed, giving me the chance to prevent Irina from being hurt and letting her learn about God's death.

Then she would lose her faith in God like Xenovia, allowing me to convince them to join my peerage when they informed their superiors about God's death.

That plan would work perfectly and then I would be able to get Irina to fall for me instead of Hyoudou.

My thoughts were soon interrupted when I sensed an irregular flow of power in the area.

Finally, about time Freed showed up.

I then activated my magic-circle and teleported myself to Hyoudou's location, arriving just in time to see Freed along with Valper, both were surprised to see me along with the others.

"S-Senpai!" Hyoudou cried out.

"When I sensed an irregular flow of power I decided to come and check it out. It will only be a matter of time before Rias and Sona notice it as well."

"Are you serious!? Then I'll really be killed by Kaichou! You have to save me, senpai!" Saji cried out in despair.

Sorry Saji, but you weren't my problem.

"Who is this Devil?" Freed wondered, glaring at me while wielding a long sword.

That was one of the Excalibur fragments they had stolen.

"We haven't officially met, Freed Zelzan, though you might have met my peerage. My name is Zeroth Bael, the next Great King."

That ought to get him pissed off.

"So those Devils that attacked us from before were your servants. Now I have the sudden urge to want to kill you, but it's about time that I take my leave, but don't worry, we'll meet again soon, Devil-sama."

"I won't let you escape!"

Someone then shot past me and their blade clashed against Freed's, causing sparks to fly. It was about time Xenovia showed up.

"Yahoo."

"Irina!" Hyoudou called out as Xenovia's partner arrived.

"Freed Zelzan, Valper Galilei, rebels. I will cut you both down in the name of God!"

Freed laughed. "Don't say the name of the hateful God that I hate! You bitch!"

The two of them then began to exchange strikes at each other, but then he took a ball of light out of his pocket.

Knowing what was about to come next, I quickly shielded my eyes.

"Valper-Ossan, we are escaping! We are going to report to the boss, Kokabiel!"

"There's no other way."

"See ya! The alliance of Church and Devils!"

A second later a bright flash of light covered the area, but I managed to escape the worst of it having already prepared myself for it.

"We are going after them Irina."

"Okay!"

Xenovia and Irina nodded at each other and sprinted after Freed.

"I'm going after them too! I won't let you escape Balba Galilei!" Kiba also pursued them.

"He…hey! Kiba! Geez! What's going on!" Hyoudou complained.

"Sorry Hyoudou, I'll leave you to explain what is going on to Rias and Sona!" I then dashed ahead after the three of them, leaving Hyoudou behind to deal with his punishment along with Saji.

It took us a while to catch up to Freed, but when we finally did, we all stopped in front of a large-mansion like building. It looked largely disused, but it was easy to tell that Kokabiel was in there from the immense amount of power coming from in there.

Kiba tightened his grip on his Demonic Sword, glaring at the house.

I then walked up to Kiba and placed my hand on his shoulder, keeping him from charging inside. "Calm yourself, Kiba. There's a high chance that Kokabiel is in there with Freed, we can't just go charging in there recklessly."

"Let me go!" Kiba snapped.

It was clear that Kiba was letting his emotions get the better of him, preventing him from thinking straight.

"Zeroth is right, we can't just charge in without a plan." Xenovia added, supporting my decision.

"Plus with a High-Class Devil like Zeroth by our side, we might just be able to stand a chance." Irina said.

Xenovia scoffed. "Unless his title as the Strongest Youth is just for show."

"You need not worry about me. Besides, I know the best way to smoke them out of there."

Kiba slowly calmed himself and looked at me. "What do you have in mind?"

"It's a new technique that I have been slowly improving. I'm certain though that it would be enough to bring that building down."

"It beats sneaking through the house and walking into traps," Xenovia said.

Irina smiled. "Then we'll leave it to you."

Kiba sighed. "Looks like I don't have a choice if I don't want the house to come down on me while inside."

"Then let's begin."

It was time to see the results of my training.

* * *

 **Yes I will admit that I have some problems repeating the same stuff in each chapter, had the same problem in my last SI story as well and I will try to address that in future chapters in the next arc. I'm still getting used to writing in first person after all and will make mistakes from time to time. I'm not perfect.  
**

 **Also, sorry for dropping this bomb on you guys, but irl is getting kind of busy for me at the moment so this story will probably be put on hold once this arc is finished. I have no idea when I'll be back on, and plus I think that I need another break from writing.  
**

 **So to make it up to you guys I will be uploading the rest of the chapters of the arc along with this chapter.  
**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER: Battle of Kuoh Academy Begins  
**


	13. Battle of Kuoh Academy Begins

After confirming the plan once more with Xenovia, Irina, and Kiba, they gave me some space while I stood in front of the building.

This was it, all my years of training had finally lead up to this. It was finally time to show just how strong I really was.

Now then, this probably wouldn't hurt Kokabiel, but it would definitely piss him off. No doubt he was hoping for us to infiltrate the building like what Kiba and the others did last time, but that was going to happen this time.

I then released all of my demonic power at once as it surrounded my body, condensing it into a black aura that covered my entire body while releasing my Touki as well, feeling it swirl inside my as it glowed pure-white through my veins.

The ground around me began to shake while cracks started to appear from the all ready run-down building.

I had to keep the damage around this area to a minimum, but it wouldn't be possible without Kuroka's barrier.

All I needed to do though was to destroy that building that was all.

"W-What is that form?" Kiba wondered, with a surprised tone in his voice.

"This kind of power shouldn't belong to a High-Class Devil," Xenovia noted.

It was no surprise that they were feeling pressure from the amount of demonic power and Touki being released from my body. Even the ground underneath me had already been destroyed and formed a crater.

Now then, try and ignore this, Kokabiel.

Pulling my arm back, I then gathered a large amount of demonic power and Touki into my fist, hoping that it wouldn't cause too much damage to the area behind the building.

This was my first time using this technique after all on a real target.

There was definitely a chance though that Kokabiel would have sensed my presence by now due to the massive amount of power flowing from my body, but my only objective at the moment was to get him to come out.

"Iron Fist!"

I then released a column of pure-white and black energy from my fist that launched itself straight at the building.

As the column headed for the building the ground underneath it disintegrated until it finally collided with the building, causing massive cracks to appear around it until it shattered apart, the windows exploding while the rubble vanished instantly upon contact with my attack.

However, much to my surprise the attack continued to rage through the building, completely wiping out the field behind it. Hopefully there was no one there when that attack blazed through.

"D-Don't you think went a bit too overboard?" Kiba asked.

"That kind of attack won't be enough to take out someone like Kokabiel."

"That is right!"

Feeling an immense amount of pressure coming from behind, I looked up along with the others as a man wearing a black robe hovered in the sky, with ten black wings on his back. He was ghostly-pale, with black hair and pointy ears.

Just by looking it at him it was easy to tell that my attack wasn't able to damage him.

However, at least it managed to get his attention.

Kokabiel smirked. "This is our first time meeting, son of the House of Bael. That attack just now was quite impressive."

Even with my new form activated, my body still shook in fear from the amount of aura radiating from his body. This guy was still stronger than me.

As I thought, my only chance at defeating him was with Hyoudou's Boosted Gear, but the question was how many transfers it would take to defeat him.

"Nice to meet you, Kokabiel. Sorry for disturbing you. My name is Zeroth Bael."

Luckily for me, Kiba and the others were wise enough to not make a move while Kokabiel was focused on me. He was a battle-freak and he was no doubt interested in me because of how strong I was.

The rubble from the aftermath of my attack began to move and to my surprise, Freed emerged from it along with Valper.

"That wasn't cool, boss! You could have at least given us a warning next time!" Freed shouted.

Kiba glared at Freed when he saw the Excalibur in his hand. "Freed Zelzan!"

Much to my annoyance, he immediately shot forward, swinging his Demonic Sword at his target only for Freed to easily parry it. Man this guy really couldn't hold his anger back when it came to the Excalibur.

"You're persistent, but unfortunately you are not my type, Devil-kun!"

"Shut up!"

The two of them continued their sword fight while completely ignoring Kokabiel.

"This is boring, hopefully you will be able to entertain me, Zeroth Bael. If you don't stop me here then I will begin rampaging in this town using your base, Kuoh Academy as the starting point. Hopefully that will get the Maou's attention if I do that."

"I-If you do something like that, the war between God, Fallen-Angels, and Devils will begin again you know?" Irina pointed out.

"That's what I'm wishing for. I thought that Michael would start a War if I steal the Excalibur, but what he sent were grunt Exorcists and two holy-sword wielders. It's boring. I'm really bored indeed! That's why I'm going to rampage at Kuoh Academy, where the heirs of the Bael, Gremory and Sitri attend then that will really get the Devil's attention. See? It looks fun, right?"

"Then you leave me no choice but to take you out here and now, Kokabiel!"

I then released all of my demonic power and Touki at once, glaring at Kokabiel. This guy's fun had gone for too long, it was time to put an end to it.

My attack wouldn't be enough to damage him in my current state, but it would give all of us a chance to escape and regroup with the others. Then I would be able to take him on with Hyoudou's Boosted Gear.

Kokabiel laughed. "That is nothing compared to my power, brat!"

That was when it fell upon me.

The sudden powerful pressure that fell on me threatened to crush me entirely, dispersing my new form within an instant. The entire area around us shook as if under the force of an earthquake. Xenovia and Irina leaned on their swords to remain upright while Kiba collapsed to the ground, halting his duel with Freed. However, Freed and Valper were also affected by the amount of pressure radiating from Kokabiel's body.

Move, my body. Just one attack would do if it could reach him. Even if it wasn't with my new form, my power of destruction would be enough.

There was no way that I was going to fall from something like this.

"Is that it?"

Those words seemed to catch Kokabiel's attention as I slammed my fist into the ground, releasing a wave of demonic power that shot out from underneath my fist and slammed into Kokabiel's body.

At that instant, the pressure ceased and I was able to move my body again.

"And here I thought that would be enough to put you down." Kokabiel landed on the ground, surprising me and the others. "It seems that you aren't called the Strongest Youth for nothing. Freed, pull back for now. I've taken a sudden interest in this matter."

So he finally decided that I would be able to give him some form of entertainment, huh.

Freed clicked his tongue. "But I wanted to be the one to cut up the shitty Devils!"

Then Freed was knocked off the ground from a feathery, black wing, sending him crashing into the rubble that was once their base. Freed pouted in response after recovering from the attack.

"Bastard," Freed muttered, but did nothing more when Kokabiel shot a dangerous look at the Stray Exorcist.

"Kokabiel-sama, are you sure that this child is even worthy to engage you in battle?" Valper asked.

Kokabiel shot a familiar dangerous look at Valper. "Are you questioning me as well, Valper?" Valper shrunk away from his master's gaze, bowed and stepped away.

Even Kiba finally recognized Kokabiel as the major threat, having turned his attention from Freed to the Fallen Angel. With this guy in our way, he knew that he would not be able to exact his revenge against Excalibur.

"Zeroth Bael. I will let you attack me once. Unleash your most powerful attack. I want to see if you are even worth my acknowledgement."

I shouldn't have been at all surprised from his words, as he looked at me with a confidence, but with a bored expression on his face.

"So be it."

Looks like I had no other choice if we all hoped to make it out of here alive.

Kokabiel grinned in response, extending his arms and wings wide. "Anywhere you desire. Show me the true power of that form of yours."

"You die here!"

"Xenovia wait!"

To my surprise, Xenovia rushed forward, swinging her Excalibur down on Kokabiel in the hopes of catching him unaware, but to no avail. Kokabiel easily caught the blade on one of his wings.

"This does not extend to you, Exorcist." With a flick of his wrist, Kokabiel sent Xenovia flying through the air. To soften the landing, Xenovia hit the ground rolling. Irina ran to her comrade's side, helping her back up. "My patience is wearing thin. An interference such as that will not receive such a light punishment next time." He then turned back to me, grinning.

"Zeroth, what do we do?" Irina asked me, with a worried look on her face, clutching her cross in desperation.

"When I attack you three need to run. Don't worry about me, I have my own escape plan."

My magic-circle would be more than enough to transport me to safety once the attack hit Kokabiel.

Not waiting for a response, I then looked back at Kokabiel and unleashed all of my demonic power again while my Touki flowed through my body.

"Now show me why they call you the Strongest Youth, Zeroth Bael!"

"Yeah, I'll do just that!"

Gathering a large amount of demonic power and Touki in my hand, I then swung it forward, unleashing a powerful attack that took the form of a black and white lion. It then began to run across the terrain, charging straight at Kokabiel.

"Eat this, Great Lion King!"

The lion then let out a roar as it slammed into Kokabiel, causing a massive explosion that sent dust flying everywhere.

"Now!"

"As if I'll let you escape, those Excalibur-chans you have will be mine." Freed attempted to burst forward through the smoke to pursue, but I lashed out, releasing a wave of demonic power at him, causing him to jump back.

"Now I'll be taking a page from your book."

I immediately activated my magic-circle and teleported to safety, not bothering to wait and see if my attack did any damage to Kokabiel.

* * *

"We have covered the school with a large barrier. With this, unless something disastrous happens, there will be no damage outside."

Saji reported the current situation to Rias and I. After teleporting away after attacking Kokabiel, I immediately informed Rias and Sona about the situation and we had all gathered at the park located right in front of Kuoh Academy with the other members of our peerage. The only ones not there were Kiba, Xenovia, and Irina. According to Saji though, Sona had gathered everyone from the student council and put up a big barrier on the school after she had heard the situation from me. It was a measure used to keep things occurring inside from leaking outside. Our opponent was one of the leaders of the Fallen-Angels who appeared in the bible after all.

"This is to keep it to the minimum. To tell you the truth, if Kokabiel were to fight seriously, not only this academy, but the whole region would be annihilated. Adding to that, he has already gotten ready for that. My servant has seen him releasing his power at the school grounds." Sona added.

I was the only one not surprised, this was Kokabiel we were talking about. Though from Sona told me it would seem that my attack did not damage him at all, but pissed him off. That was not at all my intention, but it would seem that my attack had caught Kokabiel by surprise.

Sona then continued to explain to the others. "My servants and I will continue to place the barrier to reduce the damages. I want to minimize the damages as much as possible. It's hard to prevent having our school getting damaged. But it looks like we have to since it's the leader of the Fallen-Angels who is moving."

Sona made a sharp eye and looked in the direction of the school with eyes filled with hatred. There was no doubt in my mind that the school would get damaged from our battle, but we had no other choice if we hoped to defeat Kokabiel.

"Thank you, Sona."

"You can leave the rest to us."

"Rias. Our enemy is a monster with strength above ours. It's still not too late. We should get your Oni-sama."

Rias shook her head in response. "You also didn't call your Onee-sama."

Stubborn as always.

"My Onee-sama is, your Oni-sama loves you. Sirzechs-sama will definitely move. So…"

"I have already informed Sirzechs-sama." Akeno interrupted.

"Akeno!" Rias criticized, but Akeno had an angry look on her face.

"Rias. I know that you don't want to cause problems for Sirzechs-sama. It happened in your territory. In your base. And it happened after the family problem. But it's a different story if the leader of the enemy appears. It is a problem that surpasses the level that we can solve. Let's borrow the strength of a Maou."

Not if I had anything to say about it if my plan worked with Hyoudou's Boosted Gear. Two or maybe three transfers should be enough to allow me to fight on par with Kokabiel.

Rias on the other hand looked like she wanted to say something, but took a deep breath and nodded.

Akeno then smiled after that. "Thank you for understanding the situation, Buchou. Zeroth-sama, Sona-sama. Sirzechs-sama's reinforcements will be here in one hour."

We wouldn't have that kind of luxury though once the battle started because of Kokabiel's spell, but they didn't need to know that.

"One hour, I understand. In that time, we, the student council, will vow to continue to place the barriers in the name of Sitri."

Rias seemed like she had made her decision as well after hearing Sona's decision.

"So one hour. Now my servants. We will be on the offensive. We will go inside the barrier and draw Kokabiel's attention. Unlike the battle against Phoenix, this is a battle of life and death! Even so, I will not forgive you if you die! We will survive and continue to attend that school!"

"YES!"

"Valerie, I want you to stay here with Sona's servants. Sona, I will leave her in your care."

"But," Valerie started to complain, but Sona interrupted her.

"Understood, she can help the others place barriers around the school. I will make certain that she does not get involved in the fighting."

"Thank you."

I then approached Rias who looked over at me as we prepared to head into the school.

"What is it, Zeroth?"

"Rias, I have a plan that will give us a chance to defeat Kokabiel, but it involves Hyoudou's Boosted Gear."

"What do you have in mind?"

"I only have twenty minutes left in my form, but during that time I promise you that Kokabiel won't be able to stand a chance against me."

"That's quite a claim you have, but alright I'm listening. We need all the help we can get if we hope to make it out of this fight alive."

"Then this is how we are all going to survive."

* * *

When we all stepped into the courtyard of Kuoh Academy, we came upon a large, four-pronged, spiraling seal with Valper Galilei standing in the center. In the middle of the seal were the three Excalibur fragments, releasing extreme lights. Several feet in front of them stood Freed Zelzan. At least this time we would be able to last longer with the other members of my peerage.

"What is this?" Hyoudou wondered, staring at the Excalibur fragments.

"I'm going to make the three Excaliburs into one." Valper replied, with an amused tone in his voice.

"Valper. How much longer will it take for the Excaliburs to merge?"

I tensed up immediately when I recognized the voice and looked up along with the others at Kokabiel. The arrogant prick sat on a throne-like chair in the sky, looking down on us while the moon shimmered in the background.

"It won't even take 5 minutes, Kokabiel."

"Is that so. I will leave it to you." Kokabiel then moved his eyes from Valper towards Rias and I. "Is Sirzechs coming? Or is it Serafall?"

"In the places of Oni-sama and Leviathan-sama, we…"

Before Rias could continue, the sound of the wind whipping past us could be heard before being followed by the sound of an explosion that echoed throughout the area. Everyone besides me was surprised to see the gym destroyed, where a big pillar made of light now stood.

"Boring. Well that's okay. It will be entertaining. Now I will have you all fight my pets I brought from hell."

Kokabiel clicked his fingers. Then from the depths of darkness there was a sound of the ground rumbling as it came closer to us. A ten meter tall dog with a large body appeared, with thick legs, sharp claws, and eyes glittering red from the darkness. The three-headed beast growled, glaring at us while baring its fangs.

All three heads then howled, shaking the ground underneath them.

"Cerberus!" Rias said with a voice filled with disgust.

"Remember Rias, I only have twenty minutes, during that time Hyoudou will be transferring his power to me."

"I know."

"By the way, Hyoudou. How many times can you transfer your powers?"

"Right now with my current stamina, I can only transfer it 4 or 5 times with the maximum boost. No, I might faint after the fifth time so please think that I can only do it four times."

"Four times should be enough for me."

But first we needed to take on the cannon fodder before dealing with Kokabiel.

"Kuisha, you're with me. Jeanne protect Asia and Ravel! Kuroka do what you do best!"

"Akeno!"

Both Rias and I soared into the air with our wings while our Queens stood by our side.

Cerberus growled before jumping at us with two of its heads aiming at Rias and I, breathing fire at us. Before the fire could hit me a warp appeared in front of me, sucking the flames inside while Akeno froze the flames that were aimed at Rias.

"Now!"

I soared over the warp as it released the flames back at Cerberus before thrusting my fist forward, releasing a jet of black flames at it while Rias added her own demonic power, but Cerberus countered our attacks with the third head as it released another blast of fire at us. As much as I wanted to take out the beast quickly, I needed to conserve my energy for the real battle against Kokabiel.

"I have found an opening in you."

Shirone jumped into the air and landed a heavy blow onto Cerberus's head followed up by a wheel of black flames that slammed into its neck.

"Nice one, Shirone!"

"Time to finish this."

Kuisha released a stream of flames from her hand and it struck Cerberus while Akeno pointed her fingers up, creating lightning in the sky before launching it at Cerberus.

After a single flash, Cerberus was surrounded by violent lightning, and combined with my attack and Rias's we were able to annihilate the beast, turning it into dust.

The ground then began to rumble again and then vanished as fire erupted from it, with a loud howl resounding from the hole, followed by a pitch black paw, then a second one. Within moments, another three-headed beast emerged from the ground, with the hole vanishing after it appeared.

It then growled then charged towards Jeanne, Asia, and Ravel. However before it could attack, two of the heads of the Cerberus was cut off. Two swordswomen appeared, wielding their Excaliburs as the heads of the Cerberus that were cut off turned into dust.

Xenovia smirked. "We've come to back you up."

"Sorry for being late!"

"Irina!" Hyoudou cried out in surprise.

After saying that, Xenovia slashed at the Cerberus' torso while Irina struck it on its back. The Cerberus howled in pain because it had lost two of its heads until its body split in half after receiving Xenovia and Irina's attacks, with the body vaporizing into dust due to the effects of their Holy Swords.

"The strike of the holy-sword. It gives critical damage to creatures."

Xenovia thrust her sword deep into the Cerberus' chest to finish it off. That moment, the Cerberus' body completely turned into dust and disappeared.

"Hyoudou, is it ready yet?"

I thrust my fist deep into the stomach of another Cerberus, releasing a blast of demonic power and Touki through it, annihilating the beast in one strike.

"It is, senpai!"

I landed beside Hyoudou and he placed his hand on my shoulder, activating his Sacred Gear.

[Transfer!]

Feeling the surge of energy flowing through my body, I then turned my attention towards Kokabiel. Only twenty minutes were left with my form, but knowing that my last attack didn't do much damage to him last time, I was going to need to rely on the power of my fist.

Kokabiel grinned in response when he noticed me staring at him. "Let's see just how strong you got with the Sekiryuutei's power, Zeroth Bael!"

Here goes nothing.

Releasing all of my demonic power at once along with my Touki, I could tell just how much stronger I was compared to without Hyoudou's help.

"W-What is that form?" Rias asked.

"Satan Force."

"Ho, I was wondering what that power of yours was called, but to think that you would believe you have the same power as a Maou is truly amusing." Kokabiel laughed.

"We'll see who will be laughing when I'm done with you."

Leaping forward, a burst of wind shot out from behind me from the aftermath of my takeoff as I blasted straight at Kokabiel. If long range wouldn't work then let's try close range.

Engulfing my hand with a large amount of demonic power and Touki, I then released it as I thrust it in Kokabiel's direction, launching a surge of energy at him that took the form of a lion.

"As if that attack will work on me, you should have learned that the first time."

The black and white lion roared as it charged in the air, slamming into Kokabiel, only for him to block it with both of his hands. Sparks flew in the air as the two attacks collided, with the two of them trying to overpower the other.

Kokabiel then faced his palms towards the sky, causing the lion to change its direction and disperse into the sky. Kokabiel showed a malicious smile after seeing the smoke and a few drops of blood coming from his hands.

"I see. Your power has definitely become stronger because of the Sekiryuutei. Interesting. This is very interesting indeed." Kokabiel laughed, finding it amusing.

Even after all those years of rigorous training, it still wasn't enough to defeat him.

"It's complete." Valper exclaimed, as the three Excaliburs that were placed on the center of the school field started giving out incredible amounts of light. Kokabiel applauded after witnessing the spectacle. "The three Excaliburs are going to become one."

It started giving out divine light that spread throughout the school field. Because of its brightness, we covered our faces with our hands. When I stared at the center of the school field, I saw that the three Excaliburs were put on top of each other. When the bright lights were gone, there was one holy-sword at the center of the field giving out a blue-white aura.

"Because of the light created by the Excalibur when it turned into one, the spell on the ground is also complete. This town will collapse within 20 minutes. The only way to dispel it is by beating Kokabiel."

"Freed!" Kokabiel called out.

"What's up, Boss?"

A white haired priest emerged from the darkness. Figures he would be hiding until the last minute.

"Use the Excalibur in the circle. It shall be the last entertainment. Fight while using the Excalibur that has turned into one from the three Excaliburs."

"Yeah yeah. Geez. My Boss sure uses people recklessly. But but! It's like I'm so honored to use the Excalibur-chan that has become super wonderful! Something like that?" Freed laughed. "I will just chop some Devils now!" He showed that crazy smile of his while holding the Excalibur located at the center of the school field.

As much as I would love to crush that priest here and now, that role belonged to Kiba.

"Rias Gremory's "Knight". If the cooperation is still valid, let us destroy that Excalibur together."

"Is it okay?"

Xenovia laughed fearlessly at Kiba's words. "At worst, it won't be a problem if I collect the "fragment" of the Excalibur that is acting as the core of it. Since Freed is wielding it, that is a holy-sword but it isn't a holy-sword. Even if it's a holy-sword, it's the same as any other weapon. It changes depending on the person using it. That is a sword of heresy."

Knowing that those two could handle Freed and Excalibur, I then focused my attention back on Kokabiel.

I had around fifteen minutes left in this form, but all that was needed was an opening and that would be enough to finish him off.

"Kokabiel, it's time that we finished this."

"For you to believe that you can defeat me, you must have something up your sleeve, brat."

"Yeah, because I will be the one who will defeat you for you are just a stepping stone for me to become the strongest being."

Kokabiel laughed after hearing my response. "That's a big dream you have, but you won't live to see that dream come true when I'm done with you."

"We'll see about that."

It was time to put everything that I had learned over the years to the test. My body, demonic power, and Touki, I was going to use all of it until there was nothing left. Until then, endure it my body for I had no intention of dying for a second time.

* * *

 **Sorry for this chapter being shorter than the others, but this was the spot that I wanted to end this chapter.  
**

* * *

 **NEXT CHAPTER: Satan Force  
**


	14. Satan Force

The area around us was too quiet, but just one move could be fatal and I planned on going all out against Kokabiel. Down below, Hyoudou and the others were no doubt watching the scene of Kiba accepting the feelings of his former comrades play out, but my attention was solely focused on Kokabiel who had yet to move an inch after we had decided to duke it out.

It was nerve wracking to be honest, but from here on out I needed be careful and not waste my stamina.

"What's the problem? What happened to all that bravado you had before?" Kokabiel smirked, waiting for me to make a move.

Looks like I had no other choice but to make the first move.

"Try and block this!"

Releasing a surge of demonic power and Touki, I launched them at Kokabiel as a great column of pure-white and black energy, ripping through the sky.

"Not bad."

Kokabiel thrust his hand forward, intercepting the attack and forcing it to curve to the side, causing it to crash into the barrier put up by Sona and her peerage.

"Is that all?" Kokabiel grinned, showing a fearless smile.

"Tch."

Lunging forward, I lashed out with my fists, causing shockwaves to reverberate around us as I tried to land a hit on Kokabiel, but he easily evaded my attacks.

"It would seem that the Sekiryuutei's power used on you is starting to wear off. Now you are nothing, but a High-Class Devil. And here I was hoping for a challenge."

Kokabiel threw his fist forward, causing me to reel my body back, barely avoiding it as a burst of light was released from his palm.

I then swung my fist upwards in an uppercut, but Kokabiel easily pulled back, avoiding the surge of pure-white and black energy that shot out of my fist, piercing the sky above us.

"You can't dodge my attacks forever!"

Kokabiel kneed me in the stomach, causing me to cough up spit and blood before I was sent soaring through the air. Damn, at this rate I wouldn't be able to land a single hit on him and it was only a matter of time before my Satan Force reached its limit.

Spreading out my wings, I kept myself from crashing into the barrier before launching myself back at Kokabiel.

Let's try this.

With my body cloaked in Touki and Destruction, I propelled myself at Kokabiel, straight for his stomach, causing the air around me to ripple and crack.

"Are you serious?" Kokabiel laughed, swinging his arm into the air then bringing it down, slamming it onto my back, causing my to cry out before crashing into the ground.

"Zeroth/Senpai!"

The voices of my comrades could be heard as I struggled to get out of the crater that had been formed upon my body crashing into the ground. To my surprise a spear of light shot down from the sky, hitting not me, but Valper, causing him to throw up a solid amount of blood. Kiba approached his body to make certain that he was dead.

"Valper. You were remarkable. The reason you went up to that conclusion proves that. But, I don't mind whether you are with me or not. I could have done it by myself from the beginning."

To think that he could hear what was going on down here while fighting was incredible, even though I knew from my past knowledge what had just happened.

Kokabiel laughed while looking down us.

"I can tell just by looking at you that you are almost at your limit, Zeroth Bael. Sekiryuutei, increase your power and transfer it to him."

This guy sure was confident of himself, but given the situation I couldn't blame him. After Hyoudou's power had been completely used up, I could barely land a hit on him even when using my Satan Force, which was my true form. I couldn't help but envy Vali, who had managed to easily defeat Kokabiel even though he was in his Balance Breaker state.

A familiar green light hit my body, slowly healing my injuries, but Kokabiel did nothing, watching in amusement.

"Thank you, Asia."

"This is the only thing that I can do, Zeroth-san."

"Hyoudou, activate your Sacred Gear."

"Y-Yes!" Hyoudou answered my order.

[Boost!]

While Asia healed my injuries and Hyoudou continued to power up, no one made a single move. The others all understood that they wouldn't be able to hit Kokabiel for he showed no openings while waiting patiently for the power of the Sekiryuutei to increase.

"It's here!" Hyoudou's emitted a bright light, indicating that it had reached it limit.

"Now transfer it." Kokabiel smirked.

[Transfer!]

Compared to before the amount of energy that flowed through my body was enormous, causing the ground underneath me to shake an the air to crack as pure-white and black energy surged out of my body. With this power I would be able to defeat him!

Kokabiel laughed after feeling the pressure coming from my body. "That flow of demonic power! The demonic power I can feel right now is that of a Maou-Class Devil. Looks like you have a talent equal to that of your cousin's!"

"All of you, stand back."

Clenching both my fists, an overwhelming amount of pure-white and black energy glowed around them, causing ripples in the air. The ground underneath me vanished as I leaped at Kokabiel, releasing a blast of energy at Kokabiel.

It made a shockwave that ripped apart the ground underneath while Kokabiel blocked it with both of his hands.

"Interesting! Interesting indeed, Maou's cousin!"

A power of light then gathered around Kokabiel's attack to slowly push my attack back, but that wasn't what I was aiming for. I appeared behind Kokabiel, surprising him while he tried to hold back my attack.

"Don't underestimate me!"

Slamming my fist into his back, a stream of energy shot out through his body, causing both attacks to explode while Kokabiel crashed into the ground.

"Now!"

"Lightning!"

"Disappear!"

A wave of lightning and a mass of demonic power shot to where Kokabiel had crashed, but the smoke was dispersed with his wings before using them to disperse their attacks.

"Will you stand in my way!? The one who inherited her power from Barakiel!?"

"Do not put me in the same group as him!" Enraged, Akeno released a fury of lightning bolts at Kokabiel, but they were all deflected by his wings.

Kokabiel laughed. "For you to become a devil! You have pleasant servants, Rias Gremory! Sekiryuutei! The left-over of the Holy-sword project who reached Balance-Breaker! And the daughter of Barakiel! You have weird tastes, just like your brother!"

"I won't forgive you for insulting my brother, our Maou! More than that, the insults you made to my servants will require your life!"

While Rias and the others kept Kokabiel busy, Hyoudou's Boosted Gear continued to increase its power. Hopefully after that it would be enough to take him down.

Xenovia, Irina, and Kiba then attacked at the same time, slashing at him, but he parried all of their attacks with a sword of light.

"Hmph! Durandal huh! Unlike the Excalibur that was already broken once, that light is the real thing! Buuuuut!"

The air shook, as Kokabiel emitted an air wave from his other hand and made Xenovia's body float. Then Kokabiel kicked Xenovia's stomach before doing the same to Irina.

"It depends on the wielder. Girl! You still can't control Durandal! The previous wielder was someone who had unrivalled strength!"

Xenovia and Irina adjusted their stances in the air and landed on the ground before continuing their attack along with Kiba.

"Kokabiel! I will eliminate you with my Holy-demonic sword! I'm not allowed to lose anyone any more!" Kiba shouted.

"Ho! Attacks at the same time from a Holy-sword and a Holy-demonic sword! Interesting! Good indeed! Come! You can't defeat me unless you do that much!"

What was taking Hyoudou so long?

Landing beside Hyoudou, I waited while gathering all of my energy into my fist.

"How much longer?"

"Almost there, senpai."

"But. Seeing that even after losing the masters you serve, you devils and followers of God can still fight, huh!" Kokabiel smirked.

Might as well let him have his moment before finishing him off.

"What do you mean?" Rias asked, with doubt in her voice.

Kokabiel burst into laughter. "That's right! I totally forgot! The truth wasn't revealed to you lower guys! Then I will tell you. In the war between the three sides, not only the Yondai-Maou but also God died. It's normal for you guys to not know about it. Who can say that God has died? Humans are an incomplete bunch. Without God, they cannot control their hearts and obey the laws, you know? Even us, the fallen-angels, and devils couldn't tell this to those below us. You won't know where the information about God will be leaked from. Even among the three-powers, only the people at the top and certain people know about it. Though it seems Valper noticed it earlier."

It was now or never, Hyoudou.

"After the War, what was left were the angels who had lost their God, the devils that lost their Maou and the majority of high-class devils and the fallen-angels who lost most of the fallen-angels apart from the leaders. So it wasn't a mere exhausted state. All of the factions fell so low, that they had to rely on humans to continue their generations. Especially the angels and fallen-angels that could only continue their generation by mating with humans. Fallen-angels can increase if the angels fall. But pure-angels can't increase their numbers after losing God. Even pure-devils are rare, right?"

"Lies, it's a lie."

"That can't be true."

Slightly further away from me, Xenovia and Irina looked like they were starting to lose strength.

"The truth is that another big war wouldn't happen unless you do it on purpose. It means that all three-sides went through hell in the past war. Everyone decided that it was meaningless to continue having a war if the start of it all, God and the Maou, were dead. Even that bastard Azazel declared that "there is no second war" after losing the majority of his men in the war! It's hard to bear! It truly is hard to bear! To lower your gun once you already shot it!? Don't fuck around. Don't fuck around! If we continued on from there, we could have won! Even so, he...! Is there any value in fallen-angels who can only live by inviting humans who possess Sacred Gears!?"

Kokabiel roared in anger.

Asia covered her mouth in shock, her eyes wide open while her body shook. "God doesn't exist? God is dead? Then the love we were given by him is…"

Kokabiel chuckled. "That's right. It's normal that there is no love from God and no divine protection from him. God is gone already. Michael is certainly doing well. He's taking the place of God and is taking care of the angels and humans. Well, if the "system" used by God is operating, then the prayer to God, the blessing of God, and exorcism would function. But if you compare it to the time God was present, the number of believers decreased. That Holy-demonic sword brat over there was able to create the Holy-demonic sword because the balance between God and the Maou broke. In reality, Holy and demonic powers cannot merge. If the ones who rule the power of Holy and demonic powers, God and the Maou, disappear, then lots of unique phenomenon's occur."

"From here on out, I will start a war! I will take your heads as a gift! Even if it's only me, I will continue from where we left off! I'm going to show Sirzechs and Michael that we, the fallen-angels, are the ultimate beings!" Kokabiel continued.

"Zeroth-senpai, make it count." Hyoudou placed his hand on my shoulder.

[Transfer!]

Kokabiel's eyes widened in surprise and he turned his attention on me as my powers were doubled again. The ground underneath me rumbling like an earthquake as my aura surged around my body.

"So that's what you were planning."

"Kokabiel, you talk too much."

With this amount of power flowing through my body it was more than enough to take him out.

Dashing forward the ground underneath me split open as I appeared in front of Kokabiel while a burst of wind shot around us. The air around my fist rippled as massive amounts of energy flowed around it.

Clenching my fist, I could feel the wave of power flowing into it as my Touki and Destruction combined together.

"As if that attack will work on me!" Kokabiel roared, raising his hand into the air, generating the power of light. "I will not lose to the likes of you."

"Then prepare yourself!"

Swinging my fist forward, it crashed into Kokabiel's face, causing his bones to crack while waves of energy surged around us, shredding the ground and causing cracks to appear around the barrier until it shattered. Blood splattered out of Kokabiel's body as my fist released all of the energy that was building up into him.

"Great King Smasher!"

Putting all of my force into the attack, I then forced Kokabiel's body downwards, slamming him into the ground, whipping up a cyclone that swirled around us while the ground was completely obliterated.

Sweat dripped from my body as I collapsed to the ground soon after, reaching my limit with my demonic power and Touki dispersing.

Underneath me, Kokabiel's body had gone cold, his body going limp from the impact of my attack.

Looks like I overdid it and killed him though it would seem that he would be the one not seeing my dream come true not me.

Looking around at my surroundings, it was hard to believe how much destruction had been caused from my attack. The pavement and parts of some of the buildings had been blown away while the barrier that surrounded the school was obliterated.

"Is it over?" Rias wondered.

"A-Awesome!" Hyoudou cried out in awe.

The sound of someone clapping could be heard, putting a halt to our celebration as we all looked up into the sky. A being with eight white wings of light growing from the back hovered in the sky. There were jewels across various locations on the armor. It would seem that Vali had finally arrived.

"V-Vanishing Dragon," I gasped, breathing heavily from exhaustion.

"Amazing. It would seem there was no need for me to come after all." Vali descended from the air and landed on the ground in front of me, looking down at Kokabiel's corpse.

"Get away from him!" Kuisha shouted, glaring at Vali.

"Relax, I haven't come here to fight any of you." Vali reached down and picked up Kokabiel's corpse, throwing it over his shoulder. "I never thought there would be someone among you who would be able to defeat him. You have my respect, Zeroth Bael."

"Luckily for you I did all your work for you."

"Indeed." Vali then walked over to Freed and picked him up as well before looking back at me. "I look forward to fighting you someday." He then tried to fly up while spreading his wings of light after retrieving the two.

[Are you ignoring me, huh, white-one.] Ddraig's voice rang out from Hyoudou's gauntlet.

[So you were awake, red-one.] The jewels from Vali's armor then began to glow in response.

[We finally meet, but in a situation like this.]

[That's all right. It's our destiny to fight one day. Things like this happen.]

[But white-one. I can't feel the hostility from you like before.]

[Red-one. Your hostility is incredibly low as well.]

[Looks like both of us have things that interest us more than fighting.]

[That's how it is. We should be having fun by ourselves for a while. It's not bad like this sometimes, right? Let's meet again, Ddraig.]

[That would also be fun, huh. See you then, Albion.]

The conversation between the Hakuryuukou and Sekiryuutei then ended and Vali took his leave, turning into a white light and flying into the sky.

After that it was truly finally over as Kuroka approached me and began healing my injuries.

"Looks like you overdid-nya, but that is to be expected of my King."

"Yeah, but it's finally over."

This was just the beginning though for peace would soon be made between the Three Factions and the Khaos Brigade would make their presence known.

"You sure do know how to make us worry." Kuisha sighed in relief as she came over to us.

"Sorry, but at least we all made it out alive."

"Is it over?" A familiar voice interrupted our conversation and I looked towards the source. Sona and the rest of the Student Council strode onto the field, staring in awe at the destruction caused from my fight with Kokabiel.

"It is, and it's all thanks to Zeroth and his Satan Force," Rias replied, smiling at me.

"I told you did I not, that we had a chance at beating him."

"Indeed."

While everyone then began to congratulate each other, I slowly recovered from my injuries with Kuroka's aid until the Maou's reinforcements arrived thirty minutes later, surprised that we had ended the battle all on our own.

* * *

"So I will be working alongside you all as Zeroth Bael's Rook. I have also enrolled in this school as a second-year student. Let's get along." Xenovia introduced herself to the rest of my peerage.

"Is this alright, Zeroth-sama?" Kuisha asked me. She clearly had not forgiven Xenovia for insulting me nor did she take it kindly of being referred to as a maiden of the Church.

"Why not? Having a Durandal wielder feels reliable. By the way has Irina accepted my offer yet?"

After learning of God's death, I had offered both Xenovia and Irina a place in my peerage, with Xenovia accepting it right away, but Irina needed time to think about it.

"She still needs some more time to think about it. I think God's death hit her harder than it did for Asia, Jeanne, and I combined."

"What about the Excalibur fragments?" Jeanne asked.

"I contacted one of our agents on standby in the area and had them come to collect the Excalibur fragments themselves. If we had waited too long they might have taken it out on Irina and possibly even the Devils for withholding the Excaliburs as an attempt to weaken the Church or something along those lines."

"And your Excalibur? Was it alright to give it back to them, and betray the Church?" Kuisha asked.

"I have to give them the Excalibur back just in case. Unlike the Durandal, there are other wielders that could be chosen. Having Durandal is enough for me. When we mentioned the absence of God to them, they became silent. So Irina and I became outsiders for knowing the absence of God. The Church hates outsiders and heresy very much. Even if that person is the wielder of Durandal or a strong believer, they will cut them off. Exactly the same way as the incident with Asia Argento."

I couldn't help but wonder how Irina's family would take it when they learned their daughter was exiled from the Church. Well, everything went according to plan for me and now all I had to do was wait for Irina's answer.

"I would also like to apologize to you, Zeroth Bael. I realize now that you are not the Devil responsible for luring the Holy Maidens away from the Church."

"Don't worry about it. That's all in the past now."

Another member from Rias's original peerage and Hyoudou's future peerage added to mine was enough for me. My peerage was going to get even stronger from here on out and when the time for my Rating Game with Rias came her peerage wouldn't stand a chance against mine.

Sure she might be able to find replacements for the original members that would have been part of her peerage, but they would not have the same level of power that her original members would have.

Remembering my conversation with Rias and Sona, I then decided to inform the others about the upcoming peace conference between the Three Factions.

"By the way, the Church made contact with us Devils. More precisely, the Maou talk about this incident. They said, "We would like to make contact with you because of unclear and dishonest actions of the fallen-angels even though we feel unsatisfactory about this". They also apologized about Valper because it was their mistake for letting him escape in the past."

It was finally beginning; the peace between the Three Factions, but that meant enemies from the Khaos Brigade would appear next. However, with my Satan Force I would be able to take on anyone who got in my way.

"But this school is truly terrifying. Not only the next Great King, but the sisters of two Maous also attend this school." Xenovia said.

"The truth about this incident was sent to the God-side and the devils' side by the viceroy of the fallen-angels, Azazel. The theft of the Excalibur was an action taken by Kokabiel only. The other leaders didn't know about it. He planned to break the tension between the three sides. If he had been alive, his punishment since he had tried to start another war would have been him being put into Coctyus for eternity in a frozen state, but since well I killed him that doesn't matter anymore."

I should have felt some kind of guilt for killing somebody, but this was Kokabiel we were talking about, a battle freak. He was going to try and destroy all that I held dear and for that he needed to die.

"We were also invited to that meeting. We have to report about the incident at the meeting because we were involved."

Rias and Sona would also be attending along with the members of their peerage.

That's right. I will apologize to Asia Argento and Jeanne. Since God didn't exist, then his love and help didn't as well. I'm sorry, Asia Argento and Jeanne. Hit me much as much as you want." Xenovia bowed her head.

"No, I don't intend to do something like that. Xenovia-san, I'm enjoying my current lifestyle. Even though I'm a devil now, I met someone, people who are important to me. I am happy because of the place I live in now and the people I have met." Asia smiled brightly, causing Jeanne to sigh in response.

"If Sister-chan says something like that then I have no choice but to forgive you as well."

Though her psychological state was at danger after hearing the rejection of God, it was because of me and the others that she was able to return to normal.

"So the three of us and Irina are the only Christians that found out about the absence of God. I won't be able to say something like a divine punishment to you now. So a heretic huh? I was a holy sword user who was admired, but now a heretic huh. I can't forget about how their eyes and attitudes changed when they saw me." Xenovia said, with a sad look in her eyes.

"Then I will be leaving. There's a lot of things I need to know about before transferring to this school. Zeroth, thank you for letting me join your peerage."

"It was nothing."

Xenovia then tried to leave the room, but was stopped by Asia.

"U-Um, on the next weekend I'm going to go out to play with everyone. Would you also like to join, Xenovia-san?" Asia asked with a smile.

Xenovia's eyes widened in shock before giving a bitter smile. "Next time then. This time I'm not interested. Except…"

"Except?"

"Can you take me around the school next time?"

"Yes!"

Xenovia then left the room after receiving Asia's response.

"Now then, let us all celebrate our victory!"

[YES!]

I was only going to get stronger from here on out to the point where I would not need to rely on others for help. Khaos Brigade, Rizevim, Hades, my future enemies wouldn't know what hit them when they made me their enemy.

That's right, because I was Zeroth Bael, the future Strongest Devil of the Underworld and the Hero who would prevent the revival of 666 (Trihexa).

* * *

"Are you sure about this, Irina?"

"I don't know, it's just that God has been dead this entire time and everything I have believed in up until now has all been for nothing."

I was currently in a room at my house with Xenovia and Irina, watching her debate about her decision and become a Devil, serving me as my Knight. She was still distraught over learning about God's death along with being exiled by her superiors. The only one she could put her faith onto now was me and that was just what I wanted.

Irina bit her lip while staring at the Knight piece on the table in front of her.

"If I accept this I will serve you for now on, correct?" Irina asked me.

"That is right, though I won't force you to do anything you won't want to. You can always back out, I won't blame you if you don't want to become a Devil."

"But Xenovia has already become one." Irina glanced at her friend, noticing that she no longer wore her cross around her neck.

"Yes, I am a Devil now. There is no turning back, and since God is dead, my life was a failure. That was why I decided to serve Zeroth, the Devil who defeated Kokabiel."

"Only because of Hyoudou's Boosted Gear."

My victory over Kokabiel was all thanks to Hyoudou, without his Boosted Gear there was no way that I would have been able to defeat him with my Satan Force. I needed to train even harder to reach the stage where I could fight strong opponents without relying on Hyoudou's Boosted Gear. Plus it was still too soon to reveal my Longinus so my Satan Force was the only thing I could rely on at the moment.

"I wonder what my family would think if they learned that I became a Devil."

This was going to be a lot more difficult than I thought to convince Irina to join my peerage. Her father was a former Exorcist though and with Irina being exiled from the Church she would have no choice but to join my peerage to rely on me for support after learning of God's death instead of Michael.

"They would want you to be happy. And it's obvious that you are not with your current situation."

"Will I be happy though as a Devil?"

"I will do everything within my power to ensure your happiness if you join me, Shidou Irina. Just as I have been doing with Asia and Jeanne."

They were also former members of the Church and Irina could use them as an example to see that they were happy being a part of my peerage. Still, Irina was making it difficult to get her to accept my offer. There had to be some way to convince her to abandon the Church and get her to join my peerage.

Great, now I really was starting to sound like Diodora, seducing women of the Church to become my servants. Unlike him though I didn't rape them afterwards.

"Happiness, huh."

Irina picked up the Knight piece and stared at it, twirling it in her hand while her other hand clutched the cross around her neck.

"Irina, you don't have to go through with this if you don't want to. You may regret this for the rest of your life if you do." Xenovia tried to convince her.

"I've already been abandoned by the Church, where else do I have to go?" Irina took off her cross and placed it on the table. "The God I have believed in this entire time has been dead, then I shall serve the Devil whom you have chosen to serve as well."

"Irina." Xenovia's eyes widened in surprise.

Irina smiled. "We're friends after all. We should stick together and since you chose him as your King then that means he can be trusted."

"Then I take it that you have made your decision?"

I interrupted their conversation, pleased with the results. It would seem that having Xenovia on my peerage worked in my favor to get Irina to join me.

"I have and will serve you as your Knight. I will be in your care for now on so you better take responsibility."

Irina accepted the purple colored Evil Piece and soon after, devil wings appeared from her back.

"Welcome to my peerage, Shidou Irina."

And just like that the Church Trio were now mine.

* * *

 **And done with the Kokabiel/Excalibur arc.  
**

 **Let me know how I did with my first real fight scene in first person. I will admit that I didn't really enjoy it, but hopefully you guys did.**

 **As for getting Irina into his peerage, man I know there are going to be some of you who don't agree with how I handled that, and it was difficult for me as well writing that scene. Ugh, well this is all being written for fun and as the writer of this story I am the god of this universe, lol.**

 **Lame excuse I know, but well this is fan fiction where canon is thrown out of the window.**

 **And that will be it from me for the time being. Got to focus on irl issues so there will definitely be no more updates from me for a while. I'll probably come back once I've got my issues settled with, no promises though.  
**


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